New York (CNN Business)A key inflation measure climbed to a record high in 2021, as pandemic price hikes just aren’t going away.
The US producer price index, which tracks what America’s producers get paid for their goods and services on average over time, rose 9.7% last year, not adjusted for seasonal swings. It was the biggest calendar-year increase since the data series began in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It was a slightly smaller advance than economists had predicted.
Stripping out prices for food, energy and trade services, which measures the changes in margins received by wholesalers and retailers, the inflation index rose 6.9% last year, compared with a modest 1.3% increase in 2020.
In December alone, the PPI data followed a similar pattern as the consumer price index that came out Tuesday: Prices still rose in December, but at a much slower pace than in the previous months.
More than half of the price increases for services came on the back of higher prices for trade services.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.