US Producer Prices Surge 11 Percent on Higher Food Costs

Wholesale prices in the U.S. soared 11% in April from a year earlier, a hefty gain that indicates high inflation will remain a burden for consumers and businesses in the months ahead.

The Labor Department said Thursday that its producer price index (PPI) — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — climbed 0.5% in April from March. That is a slowdown from the previous month, however, when it jumped 1.6%.

The cost of groceries in the past 12 months is up 10.8%, the largest 12-month increase since November 1980, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing Labor Department consumer price index (CPI) data. Grocery costs rose 1% in April after increasing by 1.5% in March; they have risen by 1% or more in the past four months. Dairy prices, led by milk, shot up the most in April, by 2.5%.

The April year-over-year increase in the April PPI declined from the 11.5% annual gain in March, which was the biggest increase since records began in 2010.

The producer price data captures inflation at an earlier stage of production and can sometimes signal where consumer prices are headed. It also feeds into the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures price index.

Thursday's figures came just a day after the government released consumer price data for April, which showed that inflation leapt 8.3% last month from a year ago. That increase is down slightly from the four-decade high in March of 8.5%. On a monthly basis, inflation rose 0.3% in April from March, the smallest increase in eight months.

Still, there were plenty of signs in the consumer price report that inflation will remain stubbornly high, likely for the rest of this year and into 2023. Rents rose faster as many apartment buildings have lifted monthly payments for new tenants. Prices for airline tickets jumped by the most on records dating to 1963. And food prices continued to rise sharply.