{"id":348,"date":"2025-07-16T12:45:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T12:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zoltrunakiver.com\/?p=348"},"modified":"2025-07-21T14:24:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T14:24:56","slug":"us-producer-prices-unchanged-with-wholesale-inflation-remaining-under-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zoltrunakiver.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/16\/us-producer-prices-unchanged-with-wholesale-inflation-remaining-under-control\/","title":{"rendered":"US producer prices unchanged with wholesale inflation remaining under control"},"content":{"rendered":"

By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. wholesale inflation cooled last month, despite worries that President Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0tariffs would push prices higher<\/a>\u00a0for goods before they reach consumers.<\/p>\n

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index was unchanged last month from May after rising 0.3% the previous month. June wholesale prices rose 2.3% from a year earlier, the smallest year-over-year gain since September. Both measures came in below what economists had expected.<\/p>\n

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so called core producer prices were also unchanged from May and up 2.6% from June 2024.<\/p>\n

The report on wholesale inflation arrived a day after the\u00a0Labor Department reported that consumer prices<\/a>\u00a0last month rose 2.7% from June 2024, the biggest year-over-year gain since February, as Trump\u2019s sweeping tariffs pushed up the cost of everything from groceries to appliances.<\/p>\n

Consumer prices and producers prices do not always move in tandem, however.<\/p>\n

Bradley Saunders, North America economist at Capital Economics, saw some signs of the impact of Trump\u2019s tariffs in a 0.3% increase in core wholesale goods prices. Furniture prices rose 1% from May and home electronics 0.8%, he noted. Both of those types of goods are heavily imported.<\/p>\n

But producer prices at steel mills fell 5.5% despite Trump\u2019s hefty 50% tax on imported steel.<\/p>\n

Some companies bought products before Trump rolled out his tariffs and have relied on those inventories to keep a lid on prices. But Saunders warned that those inventories are running low and that Trump plans to impose stiff tariffs (such as 25% levies on Japanese and South Korean imports) starting Aug. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not out of the woods yet,\u2019\u2019 Saunders wrote in a commentary.<\/p>\n

The producer price report showed that auto retailers\u2019 profit margins dropped 5.4%, suggesting that car dealers were eating the cost of Trump\u2019s 25% tariff on some imported cars and auto parts. That might explain why new vehicle prices fell last month in the consumer price report Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe doubt that auto retailers will continue to absorb the tariffs indefinitely,\u201d wrote Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, \u201dbut they have room to fall a good deal further after they surged during the spike in sales as people sought to get ahead of tariffs on imported vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n