PPI Pamphlet

BLS

U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

BLS Regional Economic
Analysis and Information
Offices

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Atlanta

Phone: (404) 893-4222
E-mail: BLSinfoAtlanta@bls.gov

The U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics
needs your help
Producer Price Index
(PPI)

Boston

Phone: (617) 565-2327
E-mail: BLSinfoBoston@bls.gov
A BLS economist can assist you in understanding how to use our products.
To find out more:
Visit our Web site at www.bls.gov
Or, contact your regional BLS Economic
Analysis and Information Office.
For general information and analysis on
the PPI, contact:

Producer Price Index
2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20212
Phone: (202) 691-7705
E-mail: ppi-info@bls.gov
Web site: http://www.bls.gov/ppi
Respondent site:
http://www.bls.gov/respondents/ppi

Chicago

Phone: (312) 353-1880
E-mail: BLSinfoChicago@bls.gov

Dallas

Phone: (972) 850-4800
E-mail: BLSinfoDallas@bls.gov

Kansas City

Phone: (816) 285-7000
E-mail: BLSinfoKansasCity@bls.gov

New York

Phone: (646) 264-3600
E-mail: BLSinfoNY@bls.gov

Philadelphia

Phone: (215) 597-3282
E-mail: BLSinfoPhiladelphia@bls.gov

San Francisco

Phone: (415) 625-2270
E-mail: BLSinfoSF@bls.gov
www.bls.gov/ppi

What is the
Producer Price
Index (PPI)?
The PPI, one of the Nation’s Principal Federal
Economic Indicators, measures the average
change in selling prices received by domestic
producers of goods and services in over 500
industries. More than 10,000 indexes for individual products and services are released each
month. Indexes are available for the products
of virtually every industry in the mining and
manufacturing sectors, as well as many industries in the service and construction sectors of
the U.S. economy.

How does the
PPI impact and
benefit you?
The PPI is widely used by the government and
businesses to make better-informed business
decisions. Some valuable uses are:
As an economic indicator — The Federal
Reserve, Congress, and Federal agencies
regularly monitor the PPI when formulating

fiscal and monetary policies, such as setting
interest rates for consumers and businesses.

direct reflection of the number of businesses
included.

For contract escalation — The PPI can be
used in purchase and sales contracts; for
instance, a builder may use the index for steel
in their construction contract to effectively
hedge against input price changes.

The PPI carefully constructs survey samples to
keep the number of contacts to a minimum,
making every business, large and small, critical
to the accuracy of the data.

To measure inflation — Indexes can be used
to measure price changes in inputs incurred by
producers of goods and services. This information is useful for businesses in determining
pricing strategy.

The Nation depends upon BLS for accurate
statistics, and BLS relies upon people like you
to provide us with data.

Producer Price Index

Total Final Demand vs. Final Demand minus Food and Energy
2010-2013
107
105

PPITFD

103

PPITFD-(F+E)

101

Will your
information
be kept
confidential?
Yes. Your company’s participation,
including sampled
products and prices,
will be held in
confidence to the
full extent permitted by law.
BLS will use the information you provide
for statistical purposes only, in accordance
with the Confidential Information
Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act
of 2002 (Title 5 of Public Law 107-347).

109

Index 2009=100

Your company is being asked to provide a
small amount of pricing information to one
of the principal statistical agencies of the
Federal Government. Your data will be used to
construct the Producer Price Index.

99
97
95

2010

2011

Year

2012

2013

For inventory valuation — The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has mandated that the PPI
be used for “Last In, First Out” (LIFO) inventory
valuation purposes.

Why should you
participate?
You count! The quality of data produced by
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a

How do you
provide data
to the PPI?
A BLS economist will meet with you to
determine which products or services will be
included in our indexes. You will then be asked
to provide periodic updates for the selected
products or services. BLS uses these updates
as the basis for our PPI indexes. The update
process is straightforward and will normally
only take a few minutes to complete.

How can BLS
data help you?
In addition to the PPI, BLS produces a
wealth of useful information that is free of
charge. This includes:
Contract negotiation tools
During contract negotiations, BLS data
may be used to ensure that prices
reflect market costs over the term of the
contract. Contract escalation guides are
available on the BLS Web site.
continued