US July PPI Flat From Prior Month, Below Forecasts

U.S. producer prices were unchanged in July, coming in below market expectations.

The Labor Department said on August 13 that the producer price index was flat from the previous month, undershooting economists’ forecast for a 0.2% increase.

The reading was 0.1 percentage point higher than June’s revised 0.1% decline. From a year earlier, the index rose 4.7%, below the market forecast of 4.9%.

Core PPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.2% from a month earlier. That was below the market forecast of 0.3%.

Compared with June’s revised 0.4% increase, core PPI was 0.2 percentage point lower.

PPI measures changes in business input costs, including raw materials, labor and energy. A higher reading is considered a leading indicator for consumer inflation because companies often pass higher production costs on to consumer prices over time.