Prices that U.S. producers face jumped higher than had been previously expected for September amid persistent supply chain issues that have increased the prices of the underlying goods they use.
Those underlying goods saw their weakest data readings in over two years, Reuters reported.
But there is some hope in the U.S. production economy as supply chain issues continue to improve, albeit slowly. Now, the primary focus is on the fight to control inflation as the Federal Reserve continues to increase interest rates.
Christopher Rupkey, a chief economist for FWDBONDS said, "Inflation is all about pass-through costs at the lower level of production, so this report counts as some relief for beleaguered consumers who face runaway inflation on the goods sitting on store shelves."
"The Fed's war on inflation hasn't been won yet, but at least the costs of goods at the producer level have stopped rising at a rate that looked out of control earlier this year," Rupkey said.
Many consumer goods and services have been clocked with price increases in recent months, including food, alcohol, machinery, vehicles, gas drilling, oil, and hospital patient care.
Will Compernolle, a senior economist at FHN Financial, told Reuters, "Improvements in supply chains have cooled core goods prices, but price pressures everywhere else are a reminder that supply chain healing is insufficient to bring down overall price inflation."