Inflation at the wholesale level jumped 8.6% in October from a year earlier, matching September’s record YOY gain and offering more evidence that U.S. inflationary pressures are not increasing, not easing. This is the highest U.S. producer price inflation increase ever recorded in a country that has seen a number of financial crises.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers — rose 0.6% last month from September, pushed higher by surging gasoline prices.
More than 60% of the September-October increase in overall producer prices was caused by a 1.2% increase in the price of wholesale goods as opposed to services. A 6.7% jump in wholesale gasoline prices helped drive goods prices up.
Mostly dormant for decades, inflation has returned to the United States this year.
On Wednesday, the Labor Department will release its consumer price index for last month. According to a survey of economists by FactSet, it is expected to show that consumer prices rose 0.5% from September and 5.8% from a year earlier — beating September’s 5.4% year-over-year gain, the fastest since 2008.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, a healthy U.S. economy, consumer confidence, and consumer spending are essential to Apple, as America is Apple’s largest market, by far.
‘Tis best to get a handle on inflation, if you know how, while you still can. – MacDailyNews, May 11, 2021
Inflation is repudiation. — Calvin Coolidge
When a business or an individual spends more than it makes, it goes bankrupt. When government does it, it sends you the bill. And when government does it for 40 years, the bill comes in two ways: higher taxes and inflation. Make no mistake about it, inflation is a tax and not by accident. — Ronald Reagan
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