Falling producer price index fans fears of deflation
By Mitchell Hartman
There’s more evidence Wednesday of the extreme weirdness and volatility of this economy — an economy that’s under the influence of COVID-19 right now. A key measure of inflation, the producer price index, fell 1.3% in April. This is wholesale prices — the prices grocery chains and places like Amazon pay to stock their shelves with goods they sell to us, the prices hospitals pay to supply their ICUs. …But Karen Petrou, co-founder and managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics, said that’s not a huge help. “Gas is cheaper, but people are using whatever dollars they’re able to save to handle their economic shock, to try to pay the rent,” Petrou said.
https://www.marketplace.org/2020/05/13/falling-producer-price-index-fans-fears-of-deflation/
