March 2012 Consumer and Producer Price Indices

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The seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index increased 0.3 percent in March. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment. The all items index has risen 2.7 percent over the last 12 months, a decline from last month's 2.9 percent figure.

The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index for finished goods (PPI) was unchanged in March. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods climbed 0.7 percent in March, and the crude goods index declined 2.5 percent. On an unadjusted basis, prices for finished goods moved up 2.8 percent for the 12 months ended March 2012, the smallest year-over-year increase since a 2.7 percent rise in June 2010.
 

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At the end of 2011 the Bureau of Labor Statistics stopped reporting a couple of data series we tracked on this blog -- “Softwood logs, bolts and timber” (WPU085101) and “Pulpwood” (WPU085103). We have substituted “Logs, bolts, timber, pulpwood, woodchips and other roundwood products” (WPU085) in the graph above -- simplified as “Wood Fiber.” The rates of change in the individual price indices we track were mixed on a year-over-year basis in March. Nonetheless, all except Pulp, Paper & Allied Products had higher prices in March than a year earlier.
 

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