U.S. Wholesale Inflation Remained Higher in November

  • Price hikes picked up speed for United States (U.S.)-based businesses toward the end of last year, a potential signal that inflation has yet to peak and prices could soon rise faster for consumers. U.S. wholesale inflation picked up speed in November, pushed higher in part by fast-rising energy prices, according to shutdown-delayed data released Wednesday, January 15, 2026.
  • The latest Producer Price Index (PPI) report showed that prices rose 0.2% in November from the month before, resulting in an annual rate of 3%, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS).
  • Wednesday’s data also showed that wholesalers and retailers were likely continuing to pick up most of the hefty tab resulting from President Donald Trump’s sweeping and steep tariffs on imported goods. Trade services, which measure profit margins for wholesalers and retailers, were down by 0.8% in both October and November, a possible indication that businesses were absorbing higher costs versus fully passing them along to customers.
  • As the labour market has weakened, wage growth has slowed, and economic disparities have grown wider, some businesses have sought to cut prices, rather than raise them further, because a wider swath of Americans is struggling with affordability.
  • When excluding food, energy, as well as trade services, which also can be volatile, the underlying trajectory of wholesale inflation was even more concerning: Prices shot 0.7% higher in October and rose 0.2% in November, lifting the annual rate to 3.4% in October and then 3.5% in November. This was the highest annual rate for PPI excluding energy, food and trade services in eight months.
  • The latest PPI report offers some signals for the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, as several PPI data points feed into the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index. The CPI data during the fourth quarter and the latest PPI data point to the PCE price index edging further from the Fed’s 2% target rate, Pantheon’s Tombs wrote. The October and November PCE report, which will include the latest data on spending, is scheduled to be released on Thursday, January 22.

(Source: CNN)