by Calculated Risk on 5/11/2012 08:42:00 AM

From the BLS: The Producer Price Index for finished goods falls 0.2% in April; finished core rises 0.2%

The decline in the headline number was mostly due to falling energy prices.

The index for crude energy materials fell 6.8 percent in April. From January to April, prices for crude energy materials dropped 15.1 percent subsequent to a 6.6-percent advance for the 3 months ended in January. Almost three-fourths of the April monthly decline can be traced to the index for crude petroleum, which decreased 7.9 percent

However, excluding food and energy, core PPI increased 0.2%. We will probably see a slowdown in April CPI too due to declining oil and gasoline prices in April (to be released next week).