Looking a little deeper at today’s Producer Price Index (PPI) report makes it pretty clear that our current bout of inflation is not only sustained, but placing a historic burden on consumer’s fundamental cost of living with finished consumer foods climbing 1.84% since March and a truly stunning 34.9% since April 2021.
While historically very volatile, consumer foods have never increased this sharply on an annual basis, nearly doubling the last most significant annual rate and far outpacing the levels seen in the 1970s when inflation was such a persistent and prominent issue.
The following data visualization shows PPI Finished Consumer Foods since 2017 (click for dynamic view) with the index value (in blue) on the left axis and the year-over-year change (in red) and month-to-month change (in green) on the right axis.
The following data visualization shows PPI Finished Consumer Foods since 1975 (click for dynamic view) with the index value (in blue) on the left axis and the year-over-year change (in red) and month-to-month change (in green) on the right axis.
