US September PPI Rises 1.3% From Month Earlier, Beating Forecasts

US producer prices rose more than expected in September.

The Labor Department said on October 15 that the producer price index, or PPI, climbed 1.3% from a month earlier in September. That was 0.7 percentage point above economists' forecast of 0.6%.

The reading was also 0.8 percentage point higher than the revised 0.5% increase in August. From a year earlier, PPI rose 6.3%, well above the market forecast of 5.3%.

Core PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.7% from a month earlier. That was 0.4 percentage point above the market forecast of 0.3%.

The core reading was 0.5 percentage point higher than August's revised 0.2% increase.

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