If you were looking for more reasons to be optimistic about inflation, a new report on wholesale prices provided it.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand, a measure of wholesale prices, rose 0.1% in June, on the heels of a 0.4% decline in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday, less than the 0.2% increase that economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal had predicted. The index has risen just 0.1% in the past year, its slowest increase since August 2020.

Taken together with Wednesday’s government report 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:showing rapidly cool🍃ing con💮sumer prices, the PPI indicates the Federal Reserve’s campaign of anti-inflation interest rate hikes is well on its way toward getting inflation♉ under control. That means the Fed’s key interest♐ rate may be close to as high as it’s going to get.

The PPI data reinforced the impression among traders and economists that the central bank will rai꧟se the fed funds rate at its upcoming meeting☂ later in July, but no further. 

“Inflation continues to move in the right direction,” John Ryding, chief economic advisor, and Conrad DeQuadros, senior economic advisor at Brean Capital, wrote in a commentary. “We still see the Fed hi♓king rates on July 26 but a second hike later in the year is far from assured particularly if inflation continues to trend lower as the PP🍷I creates hope that it might.”

An end to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:string of rate hikes that began in March 2022 would help borrowers, relieving the upward pressure on interest rates for consumer credit such as car loans and mortgages, but hurt savers, who have benefited from higher 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:rates for savings accounts and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:certificates of deposit. 

In contrast to the widely-watched 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures what consumers pay for things, the PPI for final demand measures prices that domestic producers receive for selling things to the public, the government, to other companies and overseas. Many economists view the PPI as a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:leading indicator of inflation, since the PPI tends to influence the CPI down the road.