Prices paid to American companies rose in January by more than expected as inflation returned to goods and continued in services, highlighting the ongoing legacy of the Biden administration’s economic program.
The producer price index for final demand climbed 0.4 percent from a month earlier following an upwardly revised 0.5 percent increase in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. The median forecast in Econoday’s survey of economists called for a 0.3 percent gain. Compared with a year ago, the producer price index rose 3.5 percent.
The PPI report showed a 1.1 percent rise in food prices, driven by a 44 percent surge in egg prices from the previous month as an avian influenza outbreak continued to disrupt U.S. poultry flocks. Energy prices climbed 1.7 percent. Stripping out food and energy, the index advanced 0.3 percent on the month and 3.6 percent from a year earlier.