PPI Ex Food, Energy and Trade MoM

Final demand less foods, energy, and trade services is a core Producer Price Index (PPI) grouping (table code FD 49116). It tracks the monthly change in selling prices received by domestic producers for final demand. It drops foods, energy and trade services (retail and wholesale margins, not cross-border trade), the most volatile parts. It spans goods, services and construction sold for consumption, investment, government use and export.

A positive reading means prices rose and a negative one means they fell, with no set threshold. The program began in 1902 as the Wholesale Price Index, and final-demand aggregation became its primary aggregation with the January 2014 release.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases the index monthly, usually in the second full week after the reference month. Release is at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time under embargo, on dates shown in the online release calendar. Prices are collected for Tuesday of the week containing the 13th through the online facility, with late reports chased by phone.

It appears with the news release, detailed tables and the detailed report, plus same-day LABSTAT database postings. Each release revises the prior four months, and each January refreshes seasonal factors for five years. Relative-importance weights are set after December and published with January data.

It retains about 69 to 70 percent of final demand across retained blocks, including capital-investment parts.

• Final demand goods less foods and energy: retained goods core capturing price change for finished goods excluding volatile food and energy.
• Final demand services less trade, transportation and warehousing: largest retained block covering services such as loans, legal, health and portfolio management.
• Final demand transportation and warehousing services: retained block tracking freight and passenger transport plus storage price change.
• Final demand construction: retained block with partial coverage of construction output sold for final demand.
• Capital investment components: equipment and capital services retained within the blocks above.

The December 2017 example, released January 11, 2018, shows why the ex measure exists. Headline final demand fell 0.1% MoM while the ex measure edged up 0.1% MoM after 0.4% in November. Final demand services fell 0.2% MoM on lower trade margins while final demand goods were unchanged. For 2017, headline rose 2.6% after 1.7% in 2016 and the ex measure rose 2.3% after 1.8% in 2016, on an unadjusted 12-month basis.

1. Collect transaction prices: actual selling prices received, excluding taxes, are collected for Tuesday of the week containing the 13th from about 25,000 reporters. About 100,000 quotes are solicited monthly online, with late reports chased by phone.
2. Narrow-product aggregation: narrow product indexes combine price relatives (current versus base prices) weighted by base revenue using a modified Laspeyres (base-weighted average) formula. Index levels are measured against 100 in the base period, and this grouping carries an August 2013 table base.
3. Buyer aggregation: product indexes are allocated to buyers using Economic Census (5-year business census) weights and BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) input-output tables. The grouping's relative importance was 69.561 of 100 in December 2023.
4. Seasonal adjustment: indexes are published both adjusted and unadjusted, with MoM from adjusted data using X-13ARIMA (seasonal software) and indirect aggregation for FD-ID groups. New factors each January revise the prior five years.
5. Convert to % change: MoM % change equals index-point change (current index minus prior index) divided by the prior index, times 100. The 12-month change uses the same formula on unadjusted data. For illustration, an index rise from 130.170 to 130.745 gives 0.575 points, or 0.4% MoM after rounding.