- US Wholesale prices rose just 0.2% in December, marking the smallest increase in 13 months — perhaps a sign that high inflation is starting to back off after the largest surge in almost 40 years.
- Alarmed by the surge in inflation, the Federal Reserve will probably raise interest rates and plans to take other additional steps to reduce price pressures.
- Why are they still raising prices on consumers? Some wonder when the decreasing wholesale inflation for businesses will begin to show up in their retail prices.
Jeffry Bartash from MarketWatch writes:
“The numbers: Wholesale prices rose just 0.2% in December to mark the smallest increase in 13 months, perhaps a sign that high inflation is finally starting to ease after the biggest runup in nearly 40 years.
The increase in the producer price index fell below the 0.4% forecast of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
The advance in wholesale prices over the past year slipped to 9.7% from 9.8% in the prior month. It was the first decline in the yearly rate since early in the pandemic.
Still, that’s one of the biggest 12-month increases since the index was configured in 2009 and likely one of the fastest rates in almost 40 years.
A separate measure of wholesale prices that strips out the most volatile goods and services rose a faster 0.5% last month, the government said Tuesday.
This so-called core rate has climbed 6.9% over the past year, unchanged from the prior month…”
See full story here.
Economic Left 
Leave a Reply