The Producer Price Index for finished goods fell 0.8 percent in November, seasonally adjusted. Prices for finished goods decreased 0.2 percent in October and rose 1.1 percent in September. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods declined 1.2 percent in November, and the crude goods index edged up 0.1 percent.
The November decrease in the finished goods index is attributable to prices for finished energy goods, which fell 4.6 percent. By contrast, the indexes for finished consumer foods and for finished goods less foods and energy advanced 1.3 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.
The Producer Price Index for intermediate materials, supplies, and components dropped 1.2 percent in November, the largest decline since falling 1.5 percent in March 2009. The November decrease was broad based and led by prices for intermediate energy goods, which moved down 4.9 percent.
The Producer Price Index for crude materials for further processing inched up 0.1 percent in November. For the 3 months ended in November, prices for crude materials advanced 3.7 percent following a 4.3-percent increase from May to August. In November, the monthly rise in the crude goods index was led by prices for crude foodstuffs and feedstuffs, which moved up 0.6 percent. Also contributing to the advance was the index for crude nonfood materials less energy, which rose 0.9 percent. By contrast, prices for crude energy goods fell 0.7 percent.
These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. To learn more, see "Producer Price Indexes — November 2012" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-2407. All producer prices are routinely subject to review once, 4 months after original publication, to reflect the availability of late reports and corrections by respondents.
United States Department of Labor
