WASHINGTON - The producer price index for finished goods dropped 1.0% in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, the largest decline since July 2009 when it down 1.2%, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
The fall in finished goods prices was led by a 4.3% decrease in the index for finished energy goods, and followed an unrevised 0.2% drop in finished goods prices in April.
Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy, were up 0.2%, after rising an unrevised 0.2% the previous month.
The decrease in the May producer price index was larger than the median 0.6% decline projected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters, but the economists were on target with the median 0.2% rise they estimated for core prices.
Year-over-year the overall PPI was up 0.7%, much lower than the economists' projection of a median 1.2% increase. Core producer prices, year-over-year, were up 2.7%, close to the median 2.8% gain projected by the economists.
Prices received by manufacturers of intermediate and crude goods also fell. Intermediate goods prices declined 0.8% in May, the largest monthly decrease in that index since a 1.0% fall in October 2011. Crude goods took a 3.2% dive.
