March Producer Price Index: Final Demand Up 0.3% MoM

Today’s release of the March Producer Price Index (PPI) for Final Demand came in at 0.3% month-over-month seasonally adjusted, up from last month’s 0.2%. It is at 3.0% year-over-year, up from 2.8% last month, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. Core Final Demand (less food and energy) also came in at 0.3% MoM, up from the previous month and is up 2.7% YoY NSA. Investing.com MoM consensus forecasts were for 0.1% headline and 0.2% core.

Here is the summary of the news release on Final Demand:

The Producer Price Index for final demand advanced 0.3 percent in March, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Final demand prices rose 0.2 percent in February and 0.4 percent in January. (See table A.) On an unadjusted basis, the final demand index increased 3.0 percent for the 12 months ended in March.

In March, 70 percent of the rise in the final demand index is attributable to a 0.3-percent advance in prices for final demand services. The index for final demand goods also climbed 0.3 percent.

The index for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services rose 0.4 percent in March, the same as in both February and January. For the 12 months ended in March, prices for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services increased 2.9 percent, the largest advance since 12-month percent change data were available in August 2014. More…

Finished Goods: Headline and Core

The BLS shifted its focus to its new “Final Demand” series in 2014, a shift we support. However, the data for these series are only constructed back to November 2009 for Headline and April 2010 for Core. Since our focus is on longer-term trends, we continue to track the legacy Producer Price Index for Finished Goods, which the BLS also includes in their monthly updates.

As this overlay illustrates, the Final Demand and Finished Goods indexes are highly correlated.