Bidenomics: Wholesale Prices Surged Nearly 10% Over Past Year

The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures the prices suppliers charge businesses and other customers, surged 1% in January amid growing pandemic-related disruptions and soaring consumer demand.

The PPI, the key measurement of inflation at the wholesale level, surged 1% in January, almost doubling economists’ estimate of 0.5% and reaching its highest figure since May 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Tuesday. Producer prices held steady year-over-year, increasing 9.7% as of January compared to November’s 9.6% year-over-year figure.

“Consumers should be very worried about this latest report on wholesale inflation,” E.J. Antoni, an economist at the Texas Public Policy Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “These elevated prices for businesses will be passed along to consumers in the coming months, giving no reason to expect that inflation at the retail level will slow down.”

“The monthly rate of wholesale inflation has accelerated, with both the monthly and yearly rates at the second highest level in history,” Antoni said.

January’s PPI figure comes as the country faces surging inflation, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rising to a near 40-year high of 7.5% as of January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Thursday. Federal Reserve officials will be monitoring the inflationary data as they weigh their decision to hike rates in March.

“The combination of stubborn supply disruptions and elevated energy prices will prevent producer prices from reverting to more normal patterns until later this year,” Mahir Rasheed, a U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, said in a statement to the DCNF.