The prices that businesses are charging their customers rose again last month, adding to inflation pressures bubbling through the U.S. economy.
The Labor Department said Tuesday that its producer-price index rose 0.8% in May from the prior month, up from the 0.6% increase in April from March. The average rise between 2017 and 2019 was 0.2%.
So-called core prices, which exclude volatile food, energy and trade components, rose 0.7% in May from the month before.
The PPI is different from the department’s more widely followed consumer-price index, which only measures the final prices paid directly by households for goods and services. The PPI also includes prices paid by companies, governments, third-party payers such as insurers and buyers in other countries. The CPI, unlike the PPI, includes taxes and user charges and the prices of imported goods and services, because they are part of the total costs paid by consumers.
The PPI captures various changes in prices as products move through the economy, said Scott Sager, supervisor economist with the PPI division at the Labor Department. For example, the price that a manufacturer charges a wholesaler for a washing machine shows up in PPI. The CPI captures what the consumer paid the retailer for the appliance, including taxes.
