U.S. producer prices jump 1.3% in September, the most since 2022, as gasoline soars and lifts retail sales

U.S. producer prices rose 1.3% in September, the biggest monthly jump since March 2022 and more than double what economists expected, as a surge in gasoline and other fuel costs pushed goods prices up by the most since the series began in 2009, the Labor Department said Thursday. A separate report showed retail sales rose 0.8%, with much of the gain coming from higher spending at gas stations.

The biggest monthly jump since 2022

The Producer Price Index for final demand, which tracks what U.S. businesses receive for the goods and services they sell, rose 1.3% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. That followed gains of 0.5% in August and 0.2% in July, and it was the largest monthly increase since March 2022, when the index rose 1.7%. Before seasonal adjustment, producer prices were 6.3% higher than a year earlier, the steepest 12-month rise since December 2022.

The reading was more than double what forecasters expected. Economists had looked for a 0.6% monthly gain and a 5.5% annual rate, CNBC reported before the release, and a Trading Economics forecast published Thursday morning put the monthly figure at 0.5%. The bureau also revised August's increase to 0.5% from the 0.4% it first reported.

Fuel drove the goods surge

Goods prices climbed 2.6%, the biggest monthly gain since the bureau began calculating the series in December 2009. Energy accounted for more than 80% of that increase: the final demand energy index jumped 10.8%, and gasoline alone rose 20.3%, enough to explain half of the rise in goods prices. Diesel fuel, jet fuel, residential electricity and crude petroleum also climbed. Food prices rose 1.2%, with vegetables higher and egg prices down 39.7%. Goods excluding food and energy rose 0.3%.

Services and the narrower gauge

Services prices rose 0.8%, the largest increase since April. Nearly half of that came from a 1.4% rise in trade margins, which measure the gap between what wholesalers and retailers pay for goods and what they charge for them. Margins for machinery and vehicle wholesaling rose 3.9%, accounting for more than a fifth of the services increase, and prices for transportation and warehousing services jumped 3.4%, with truck freight among the gainers.

Fuel sellers were the exception. Margins for automotive fuel and lubricant retailing fell 30.3%, meaning the gap between what those retailers paid for fuel and what they charged for it narrowed sharply during the month.

A narrower index that strips out food, energy and trade services rose 0.5% after a 0.3% gain in August. It was up 5% from a year earlier, back to the 12-month pace it posted in May and June.

Pressure is heavier earlier in the pipeline

Costs rose faster at earlier stages of production. Prices for processed goods that businesses buy as inputs rose 2.5% in September and were 14.1% higher than a year earlier, the biggest annual increase since August 2022; a 21% jump in diesel fuel explained nearly half of the monthly gain. Prices for unprocessed goods rose 8.4%, the most since February 2022, as crude petroleum climbed 28.3%, and were up 21.5% from a year earlier. Increases at those stages can feed into the prices of finished goods and services in later months.

Shoppers spent more, much of it at the pump

Retail and food services sales rose 0.8% in September to a seasonally adjusted $745 billion, the Census Bureau said in its advance estimate, and it revised August's gain up to 1.3% from 1.1%. Forecasters had expected a 0.3% increase, and a 0.5% rise excluding autos, according to the investingLive consensus calendar; sales excluding autos rose 0.9%. Compared with September 2025, sales were up 6.3%. The figures are not adjusted for inflation.

Gas stations led the month. Their sales rose 6.4% from August and were 28.1% higher than a year earlier. Excluding gas stations, total sales rose 0.2%, and they rose the same 0.2% excluding both gas stations and auto dealers. Restaurants and bars took in 1.1% more than in August, furniture stores 1.3% more and online and other nonstore retailers 0.3% more. Sales fell 0.6% at building-material and garden stores and 0.1% at general merchandise stores, and auto dealers and parts stores rose 0.2%.

On Wednesday, the Labor Department said consumer prices rose 0.6% in September, with gasoline accounting for more than half the increase, and were up 3.7% from a year earlier. Read together with that report, Thursday's figures suggest that a large share of September's extra spending went to higher fuel costs rather than to buying more goods.

What comes next

The reports land less than two weeks before Federal Reserve policymakers meet on Oct. 27 and 28, and they show fuel-driven price pressure building at both the producer and consumer level in September. Labor-market data released the same morning showed little change: initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 199,000 in the week ended Oct. 10, and the four-week average was 198,500, the Labor Department said.