Wholesale inflation in April hit 2.2% for the 12 months that ended in April, according to data released Tuesday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, higher than March’s 1.8%, which was downwardly revised from 2.1%.
The inflation is based on the Producer Price Index, which assesses the change in prices that manufacturers pay to suppliers. On a month-to-month basis, prices went up to 0.5% in April, much more than economists’ expectation of 0.3%.
“The concern here is that we now have a trend, an upward trend in producer prices, which can only be passed through to consumers and result in upward pressure on consumer price inflation over the coming months,” Kurt Rankin, senior economist for the PNC Financial Services Group, told CNN.
Energy costs also increased 2% in April, which drove the prices of goods higher. However, it was mostly services inflation—up 0.6% in prices for the month, the fastest pace in more than two years—that pushed up the overall PPE
