WASHINGTON — U.S. wholesale prices rose 2.6 percent from a year earlier, a stronger-than-expected increase and a sign that inflation pressures remain very high, contradicting the recent inflation report.
The increase is the sharpest year-on-year increase since March 2023.
On the other hand, the report says that the rise comes at a time when other price indicators show that inflation is falling, an argument that It has very little to do with reality that Americans have suffered in nearly four years.
The Labor Department reported Friday that its producer price index, which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers, rose 0.2% from May to June, after being unchanged the previous month. Excluding food and energy prices, which tend to fluctuate from month to month, so-called core wholesale prices rose 0.4% from May and 3% from June 2023.
The increase in wholesale inflation last month was driven by a sizable 0.6 percent rise in services prices, driven by higher profit margins at machinery and automobile wholesalers. But profit margins at wholesalers and retailers — categorized as “mercantile services” in the producer price report — can be highly volatile. By contrast, a measure of wholesale inflation that excludes merchant services, food and energy items was unchanged from May to June. This helps explain why many economists were not alarmed by Friday’s unexpected rise in overall wholesale inflation.
In addition, general merchandise prices fell by 0.5%. Gasoline prices fell by 5.8% at the wholesale level. Food prices also declined.
The question is: Where are all these price cuts, especially on food and gasoline?
Los Government reports seem to have been prepared in another country or under a state of incredible alienation from reality
