Final-Demand Producer Prices Rose 6.3% in the 12 Months Ended September, BLS Says

The Producer Price Index, or PPI, is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' measure of prices that domestic producers receive for their output. BLS publishes it monthly. The index tracks what domestic producers receive, not what buyers pay.

BLS reported on Oct. 15, 2026 that prices for final demand were 6.3% higher over the 12 months ended in September, on an unadjusted basis. The sections below cover what the index includes, how prices and weights are set, how the formula works, how revisions run, and what the latest releases show.

What the Index Covers, and What It Leaves Out

The PPI covers the private sector and records the prices sellers receive for their output. BLS says the index measures average changes in the selling prices received by domestic producers. For many products and some services, the price recorded is from the first commercial transaction.

Coverage varies by industry. BLS says price information from virtually every mining and manufacturing industry is captured. The program also tracks agriculture, fishing, forestry, utilities and construction.

Service coverage is narrower. BLS says its service-sector coverage is roughly 70 percent of total sector revenue, and it describes that coverage as incomplete. Import and export prices are published under a separate BLS program, the Import/Export Price Indexes.

How BLS Gathers Prices and Sets Weights

BLS field representatives recruit reporting establishments and enter product descriptions, transaction terms and prices for statistically selected transactions. Respondents typically receive monthly price-update requests and report through a secure BLS data collection system. In total, BLS collects current prices for about 50,000 items each month. BLS economists verify the entries and confirm large price movements.

Weights determine how much each item counts toward the total. Item weights reflect a producer's importance within its industry and the importance of a product line at the establishment. They are drawn from shipment or revenue data gathered in initial interviews.

Commodity indexes are weighted mainly by Census gross shipments or revenue values, regardless of the industry where the product originates. Industry indexes use net output values from BEA input-output tables, which avoids counting the same price change more than once. Input indexes combine BEA Use and Make tables with Census revenue data.

BLS updates the weights at roughly five-year intervals after each economic census. Since January 2023, the weights have been derived from the total value of commodities reported in the 2017 economic censuses.

When a product changes substantively, BLS adjusts the price. Examples include a replacement product, changed sale terms, or a new unit of measure. Minor specification changes are compared directly with the last reported price. BLS also uses hedonic regressions, which estimate how a product's characteristics relate to its price, to remove the value of quality improvements from measured price change.

The Formula: Fixed Quantities and Price Relatives

In concept, the PPI uses a modified Laspeyres formula. It divides the current-period value of fixed base-period quantities by the comparison-period value, then multiplies by 100.

In practice, the index is a weighted average of price relatives, meaning current prices divided by comparison-period prices. That average is applied to the prior month's index. BLS says this recursive form more closely approximates the actual computation than the direct formula does.

Because the quantities are held fixed, the formula restricts substitution between products. BLS updates item weights when its producer samples are updated.

Seasonal Factors, Revisions and Release Timing

BLS recalculates seasonal factors and relative importance figures once a year, with the release of January data. A BLS notice on the recalculation covering January 2019 through December 2023 says the seasonally adjusted data for the last five years were revised, and that the relative importance tables were available on Feb. 14, 2024.

Commodity price indexes are available both seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted. BLS says more than 3,700 goods indexes and about 900 services indexes are published on both bases.

Monthly figures remain subject to revision. BLS says the three interim months after first issuance receive iterative updates, and final indexes are posted about four months after original publication. In the September 2026 release, BLS revised May through August data to reflect late reports and corrections by respondents. The release says those figures may differ from those previously reported. The September figures are marked preliminary.

The September report was released on Oct. 15, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The October report is scheduled for Nov. 13, 2026 at the same time.

What the Latest Releases Show

Final demand prices rose 1.3% in September 2026 on a seasonally adjusted basis, after gains of 0.5% in August and 0.2% in July, according to BLS. The release says the September increase is the largest advance since a 1.7% rise in March 2022.

Over the 12 months ended in September, unadjusted final demand was up 6.3%. Final demand goods rose 9.8% over that span, and final demand services rose 4.9%. Final demand excluding foods, energy and trade services was up 5.0% over 12 months.

The May 2026 release showed a 6.5% rise over 12 months. A BLS Economics Daily article published June 23, 2026 said that was the largest 12-month rise since a 7.4% increase in November 2022. The same article reports May 2026 12-month changes of 10.4% for goods, 36.6% for energy, 2.6% for foods and 4.9% for services.

Transportation and warehousing services were up 14.2% over the 12 months ended in May. The total PPI was up 5.7% over the 12 months ended in April and 4.3% over the 12 months ended in March, according to the same article.