Wholesale prices see biggest rise since 2022, underlining inflation problem
by Tom Howell Jr. · The Washington TimesWholesale prices rose 1.3% in September, the largest jump since March 2022, the government said Thursday in a key inflation report before the midterm elections.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Producer Price Index, or PPI, rose 6.3% for the year ending in September — the largest annual reading since midway through the Biden administration in late 2022.
The PPI measures what domestic producers receive for their products and is considered a leading indicator of inflation.
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The bureau said that half of the September increase could be traced to higher gas prices, which jumped 20.3%.
“The indexes for diesel fuel, fresh and dry vegetables, jet fuel, residential electric power, and crude petroleum also rose,” the bureau said in its summary.
In contrast, wholesale prices for chicken eggs dropped dramatically, and prices declined for thermoplastic resins and materials and commercial electric power.
The government released the producers index one day after the Consumer Price Index, a measure of checkout-counter costs, said prices rose 0.6% in September after rising 0.4% in August.
Consumer prices rose 3.7% for the year ending in September.
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Taken together, the reports underscored affordability issues at the heart of the midterm elections.
President Trump said he stabilized inflation after rampant price increases under President Joseph R. Biden, but many voters are tying the problem to the current president.
Inflation is running above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
Central bankers raised rates in September and signaled another hike is coming, though economists bet the Fed will wait until December rather than raise rates before the election.
CME FedWatch on Thursday forecast a nearly 32% chance of a rate increase at the Fed’s October meeting.
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Voters say the cost of living is their top concern ahead of November elections that will reshape Congress. Annual CPI inflation stood at 3% in January 2025.
Democrats accuse Mr. Trump of failing to tame prices as promised and keeping them elevated through tariffs on imported goods and his war on Iran, which increased oil and gasoline prices by strangling petroleum deliveries from the Middle East.
Mr. Trump says energy prices will come down once the conflict with Iran is over, and that short-term pain is worth the goal of preventing Tehran from having a nuclear weapon.
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Tom Howell Jr.
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