PRODUCER PRICES OF KEY TRANSPORTATION INPUTS
PRODUCER PRICES OF KEY TRANSPORTATION INPUTS
Key Producer Price Indices for Transportation (monthly data, not seasonally adjusted)
Producer Price Indices: All Commodities (monthly data, not seasonally adjusted)
Producer prices are those charged for the output of firms in a particular industry, or by all firms, regardless of industrial classification, for a particular commodity. These prices exclude markups at later stages of processing and the retail level. Producer prices reflect prices charged to anyone purchasing directly from the firm, including consumers, when the firm also serves as a retailer.
Changes in producer prices for transportation inputs suggest the direction of future costs for providing transportation services. Motor vehicle prices are strongly seasonal, declining as the model year culminates each September.
| Price Index (Jan-92=100) | Apr-01 | Apr-02 |
|---|---|---|
| Petroleum products | 162.9 | 142.3 |
| Petroleum products percent change from same month previous year | 11.11 | -12.66 |
| Crude Petroleum | 145.2 | 137.6 |
| Crude Petroleum percent change from same month previous year | 7.04 | -5.23 |
| All commodities | 118.0 | 113.3 |
| All commodities percent change from same month previous year | 4.36 | -3.96 |
| Transportation equipment | 112.1 | 111.8 |
| Transportation equipment percent change from same month previous year | 1.39 | -0.27 |
NOTES: The current value is compared to the value from the same period in the previous year to account for seasonality.
The base period of the original index is 1982. January 1992 is set to be the new reference point (=100) by dividing the values of the original index by the value of January 1992 in the original index. It is important to point out that this process changes only the reference point, and not the base period of the index because the weight structure of the index did not change.
Data from January 2002 to April 2002 are preliminary. A more complete description of producer prices is given in Chapter 14 of the BLS Handbook of Methods, available at: http://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/homch14_e.htm.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, available at: http://www.bls.gov/ppi/.