BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1997
RELEASED TODAY:
CPI -- On a seasonally adjusted basis, the CPI-U rose 0.1 percent
in April, the same as in March. The food index, which was unchanged
in March, declined 0.2 percent in April ....The energy index declined
for the second consecutive month, down 1.5 percent in April
....Excluding food and energy, the CPI-U rose 0.3 percent, following
increases of 0.2 percent in each of the two preceding months. The
larger advance in April reflects an upturn in the index for apparel
and upkeep ....
REAL EARNINGS -- Real average weekly earnings decreased by 0.9
percent from March to April after seasonal adjustment. This loss was
due to a 0.9 percent drop in average weekly hours and a 0.1 percent
decrease in average hourly earnings. The CPI-W was unchanged ....Over
the year, real average weekly earnings grew by 2.2 percent ....
__Producer prices for finished goods dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.6
percent in April, the largest decline since a 0.8 percent decrease in
August 1993, the BLS reports. Core prices -- excluding volatile food
and energy components -- dropped 0.1 percent in April, after rising
0.4 percent in the previous month. Core finished goods have risen 0.6
percent in the year ended in April. April marked the
fourth-consecutive decline in the Producer Price Index for Finished
Goods and the first time the index has fallen for four months in a row
since the period end August 1993 ....BLS economist Bill Thomas is
quoted as saying that, in the year ended in April, the finished goods
PPI has risen just 0.8 percent, the lowest year-over-year advance
since a 0.6 percent rise in the 12 months ended in July 1994
...."Usually April is a strong month for gasoline prices," Thomas
said. "However, because of the high crude oil inventories, gasoline
put downward pressure on energy prices" ....(Daily Labor Report, page
D-1).
__U.S. producer prices are falling, despite robust national economic
growth and the lowest jobless rate in a quarter century ....Declining
food and energy costs helped push down the index ....(Washington Post,
page E1).
__Prices paid to producers fell unexpectedly in April. The data
showed that inflation continued to be restrained ....(New York Times,
page D1).
__Economists were particularly surprised by the lack of inflationary
pressure since the economy just completed its most robust quarter in a
decade ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2)___On page C1, the Journal
carries an article by Roger Lowenstein, "Smoking Out the Inflation
Genie." Lowenstein says that the "truism isn't that runaway inflation
ever lurks around the corner, but that inflation at whatever rate
changes only slowly absent truly unusual shocks ...."
Business inventories rose 0.3 percent in March, while sales fell 0.3
percent, the Commerce Department reported ....(Daily Labor Report,
page A-11).
