Rising prices of services pushed up a key index of inflation in December, data from the Labor Department showed Friday.
The producer price index for final demand rose by 0.5 percent in December, up from a 0.2 percent rise in November and 0.1 percent in October. Compared with a year ago, the index is up three percent, higher than the 2.9 percent forecast.
There was no sign of tariff pressures in the report, once again undermining claims from critics of Trump’s trade policies that import duties would be inflationary. Goods prices were flat for the month. Although the index excludes imports, many anti-tariff economists claimed that tariffs would push up domestic prices as well as those of imports.
Instead, the December increase in prices was caused by a 0.7-percent advance in the index for final demand services. The Department of Labor said that two-thirds of the increase in goods could be traced to a 1.7 percent rise in the margins of wholesalers and retailers, a component of the index known as trade services. Over 40 percent of that can be traced to a 4.5-percent rise in margins for machinery and equipment wholesaling, the government said.
Core PPI—a measure that excludes foods, energy, and trade services—jumped 0.4 percent in December, the eighth consecutive increase. Over 2025, the core index rose 3.5 percent in 2025, down a tick from the 3.6 increase in the year before.
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