April 2012 Consumer and Producer Price Indices

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The seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index unchanged in April. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.3 percent before seasonal adjustment.

The energy index, which had risen in each of the three previous months, declined in April on a seasonally adjusted basis and offset increases in the other major indexes. The gasoline index fell 2.6 percent in April and accounted for most of the decline in energy, though the indexes for natural gas and fuel oil decreased as well. The food index rose in April as five of the six major grocery store food group indexes increased.

The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in April, the same increase as in March. Increases in the indexes for shelter, used cars and trucks, medical care, airline fares, new vehicles, and apparel all contributed significantly to the April increase.

The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index for finished goods (PPI) fell 0.2 percent in April. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods decreased 0.5 percent in April, and the crude goods index moved down 4.4 percent. On an unadjusted basis, prices for finished goods advanced 1.9 percent for the 12 months ended in April, the seventh straight month of slowing year-over-year increases following a 7.0 percent rise for the 12 months ended September 2011.
 

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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 April. Nonetheless, all except Pulp, Paper & Allied Products had higher prices in April than a year earlier.
 

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