Zeev, Fed- How can the PPI be up just 0.1%?????
Import Prices Climb 0.9% As Petroleum Prices Soar
By JOSEPH REBELLO and GREG IP
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL April 7, 2004 10:52 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Prices of imported goods rose for a sixth consecutive month in March as energy prices rebounded, suggesting the global economic recovery is steadily dispelling the risk of deflation. Overall import prices rose 0.9% in March after a 0.4% gain in February, the Labor Department said Wednesday. They are up 1.2% from a year earlier. The acceleration reflected resurgent petroleum prices, which climbed 6.1%. Prices of nonpetroleum imports rose just 0.2%, half the rate in February. They are up 1% from a year earlier. Some analysts have interpreted rising import prices as a harbinger of higher inflation at the consumer level, but Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has discounted that risk. J.P. Morgan economist Jayanth Nazareth said in a research note Wednesday, "There has been relatively little pass-through from higher commodity prices and a weaker dollar into prices of finished goods," noting that consumer-goods prices excluding autos and capital-goods prices were unchanged in March.
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