US Producer Price Index Rises 0.7% Month-on-Month in August

The US Producer Price Index (PPI) rose by 0.7% month-over-month last month. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), released the previous day, had increased by 0.6%.

On the 14th, the US Department of Labor reported that the US August PPI rose 0.7% compared to the previous month. This was 0.3 percentage points higher than the expected 0.4%. Compared to the same period last year, it increased by 1.6%, which was 0.4 percentage points higher than the expected 1.2%.

The core PPI rose 0.2% month-over-month and 2.2% year-over-year. The PPI excluding food, energy, and transportation increased 0.3% month-over-month and 3% year-over-year.

Jerome Powell, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed).
Photo by EPA Yonhap News

With the price index coming in higher than expected, there are observations that the possibility of a US Federal Reserve interest rate hike may increase.

On the same day, the European Central Bank (ECB) also raised its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points. This marked the 10th consecutive increase. The European key interest rate reached 4.5% per annum.