Producer price index fell 0.5% in July from a month earlier, largely reflecting a drop in energy costs
A key measure of US producer prices unexpectedly fell in July for the first time in more than two years, largely reflecting a drop in energy costs and representing a welcome moderation in inflationary pressures.
Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the so-called core PPI rose 0.2% from June and 7.6% from a year earlier. Both the overall and core figures were softer than forecast. “A moderation in goods prices in the second half of this year has been widely expected for some time and other details of services prices in PPI were somewhat surprisingly strong,” Citigroup economists Veronica Clark and Andrew Hollenhorst said in a note. “This keeps us focused on still-strong underlying price pressures, particularly for services related to a tight labour market.”About 80% of the decline in goods prices was due to a 16.7% plunge in petrol prices, the report showed.
Thursday’s report adds to separate data from S&P Global and regional Fed banks that showed a pullback in prices paid for inputs like materials in July.