Wholesale inflation, as measured by the headline Producer Price Index (PPI), rose 1.8 percent in annual terms in September, while an index of underlying inflation jumped 2.8 percent, with both values exceeding market expectations and signaling that inflationary pressures continue to percolate.
The latest government report on inflation from the perspective of business input costs, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) under the U.S. Department of Labor on Oct. 11, painted a mixed picture of America’s inflationary environment.
The headline pace of wholesale inflation, which eventually tends to get passed along to consumers and therefore serves as a leading indicator of where the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is headed, inched down from an annualized 1.9 percent in August to 1.8 percent in September. Despite the decline, it defied market expectations for a deeper drop to 1.6 percent….