The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on 15 October 2026 that the producer price index for final demand rose 1.3% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, after 0.5% in August and 0.2% in July, the largest monthly rise since March 2022 (1.7%).1 Over twelve months the unadjusted index rose 6.3%, up from 5.6% in August and the highest rate since December 2022 (6.4%). Goods prices rose 2.6%, the largest increase since the series began in December 2009, with energy up 10.8% and gasoline up 20.3%; BLS attributes half of the goods increase to gasoline. Services rose 0.8%. The index excluding foods, energy and trade services rose 0.5% in the month and 5.0% over the year (4.8% in August). The September acceleration in the twelve-month rate is not a base effect: in logs, the change in the twelve-month rate (0.7 point) equals the unadjusted monthly change in September 2026 (1.1%) minus the one in September 2025 that drops out of the window (0.4%). Annualised over three months, seasonally adjusted, final demand prices rose 8.1% and the index excluding foods, energy and trade 5.1%. In Figure 1, the gap between the two twelve-month rates widened to 1.3 points.2
Notes
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U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Indexes – September 2026, news release USDL-26-1576, 15 October 2026, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm (this address always shows the latest release). The energy and gasoline changes and the share of the goods increase due to gasoline are from the release text. ↑
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BLS Public Data API, series WPSFD4, WPSFD49116, WPSFD41 and WPSFD42 (seasonally adjusted, used for monthly and three-month annualised changes) and WPUFD4 and WPUFD49116 (not seasonally adjusted, used for twelve-month changes), January 2019 – September 2026, downloaded 15 October 2026: data (CSV). Rates are computed from the published indexes; rounded to one decimal they match Table A in each month checked (July–September 2026 and September 2025). The three-month annualised rate is $(P_t/P_{t-3})^4-1$; the base-effect identity is $\Delta\ln(P_t/P_{t-12}) = \ln(P_t/P_{t-1}) - \ln(P_{t-12}/P_{t-13})$ on unadjusted indexes. BLS adjusts the final demand aggregates indirectly, by aggregating seasonally adjusted components, and revises seasonal factors each January for the previous five years; the API flags June–September 2026 as preliminary. ↑