Inflation

Eric Boehm | 1.30.2026 1:00 PM

Inflation is stubbornly refusing to be vanquished by presidential edict.

Prices paid to domestic producers for their goods jumped by 0.5 percent during December, according to Department of Labor data released Friday morning. That surge in higher wholesale prices brought the annualized producer price index (PPI) to 3 percent for the year. December's sharp increase in the PPI defied expectations and followed tamer increases of 0.1 percent in October and 0.2 percent in November.

More alarming is the so-called "core PPI," which does not include more volatile categories like food and fuel prices. In December, core PPI increased by 0.7 percent, and climbed by 3.3........

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