Posted on 01/13/2006 6:53:36 PM PST by george76
The Labor Department reported that its Producer Price Index, which measures price pressures before they reach the consumer, rose 0.9 percent in December, the biggest increase since a 1.7 percent jump in September.
For all of 2005, wholesale prices rose by 5.4 percent. That was the biggest increase since a 5.7 percent increase in 1990...
However, core inflation, excluding energy and food, was up a more moderate 1.7 percent in 2005...
Retail sales posted a weaker-than-expected 0.7 percent increase in December, the Commerce Department reported, after rising by 0.8 percent in November.
"Retailers continue to report good sales momentum in the post-holiday period, bolstered by gift card redemptions," ...
The 0.9 percent increase in wholesale prices in December followed a 0.7 percent plunge in prices in November.
Economists had been expecting a rebound last month but the increase was more than double the 0.4 percent rise in the PPI they had been predicting.
The increase was expected to keep the Federal Reserve on a path of gradually moving interest rates higher to make sure that energy price pressures do not spill over into more broadbased inflation problems.
Residential natural gas prices actually fell by 2.7 percent last month ...
Outside of food and energy, the 0.1 percent increase in the core inflation rate reflected a decline of 1 percent in light truck prices and a 0.2 percent fall in the price of new cars.
The 5.4 percent increase for wholesales prices for all of 2005 followed a 4.1 percent 2004 increase.
Both gains were the biggest since a 5.7 percent rise in 1990...
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
If unemployment keeps falling, inflation will continue to rise.
Ah, the old phillips curve.
Wimen an chillllren hit hardest. We need more abortions (for RATs)
FReeepy FRrrriday the thirrrteeeenn. Yeaaarrrrrgh!
Looks to me like another attempt to turn good news into bad.
The MSM are good at spinning good news into bad.
Here, more jobs are bad.
More people with homes, bad...
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