U.S. producer prices jumped 1.3% in September as gasoline prices rose sharply. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday it was the biggest monthly increase since March 2022.
September’s gain followed increases of 0.5% in August and 0.2% in July. Compared with a year earlier, producer prices were up 6.3%. The last larger annual increase was in December 2022.
Gasoline accounted for half of the increase in goods prices. Its producer price index jumped 20.3%. Diesel fuel, jet fuel, crude petroleum and residential electricity also rose.
Together, goods prices climbed 2.6%, a record monthly increase for a series that began in December 2009. Energy prices rose 10.8% and accounted for more than 80% of the goods increase.
Food prices increased 1.2%, though eggs moved sharply in the opposite direction. The producer price index for chicken eggs fell 39.7%. Goods excluding food and energy rose 0.3%.
The figures measure the prices producers receive. A 20.3% jump in the gasoline index is not a 20.3% rise at the pump, and the chicken egg index’s drop of nearly 40% is likewise a producer-level figure, not a grocery-store price.
Price gains were not confined to energy and food. Leaving out both categories and trade services, prices still rose 0.5%, after a 0.3% increase in August. It was 5% higher than a year earlier.
Services prices increased 0.8%, their largest monthly gain since April. Transportation and warehousing rose 3.4%, with freight trucking, lodging and airline passenger services among the categories recording increases.
Nearly half of the services gain came from higher trade margins. A trade margin is the gap between what wholesalers and retailers take in for merchandise and what they paid to acquire it.
Machinery and vehicle wholesaling margins climbed 3.9%. At fuel retailers, margins moved the other way, falling 30.3% as the spread between acquisition and selling prices narrowed.
Businesses also faced higher prices earlier in the production process.
Processed goods sold for intermediate demand increased 2.5% in September. Diesel fuel, up 21%, was behind nearly half of that gain. Against a year earlier, processed goods prices were up 14.1% — the largest annual increase since August 2022.
Unprocessed goods climbed 8.4%, with energy materials leading the increase. Crude petroleum surged 28.3%; raw milk, by contrast, fell 12.3%. The 12-month rise in unprocessed goods prices was 21.5%.
Prices for services sold to businesses as intermediate inputs rose 0.9% in September. That put their 12-month increase at 6.3% — as large an annual rise as the one recorded in January 2023.
The May-through-August figures were revised as the bureau incorporated late reports and corrections. Monthly changes in the report are seasonally adjusted; the annual comparisons are not.
The bureau’s report for October is due Nov. 13 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.
