The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods rose 3.2 percent in November, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This gain followed increases of 0.1 percent in October and 1.1 percent in September. At the earlier stages of processing, prices for intermediate goods moved up 3.7 percent after rising 0.1 percent in the prior month, while the crude goods index increased 8.7 percent following a 2.4-percent advance in October. (See table A.)
This is the biggest increase since 1973.
The big issue was energy (imagine that when oil prices surged to nearly $100/bbl last month) which increased 14.1%. Ex-energy, the increase was .4%. Guess it's time to go back to "core" inflation; it looks so much better.
