Prices Up More Sharply This Year Than in 2000

Producer price inflation in the printing/publishing industry (i.e. average prices charged for the output of the industry) has accelerated a bit this year, following a moderate 3.0% rise between 1999 and 2000.

Prices charged by companies in the newspaper industry (reflecting both newsstand prices and average advertising charges for classifieds, inserts, etc.) rose by 3.5% between 1999 and 2000, but were 5.1% higher this May than during May 2000. The price measure for newspaper publishing has now increased for seven consecutive months after showing little movement over the first three-quarters of last year.

Periodical/magazine publishing output prices were up 2.7% last year, but had risen at an annualized rate of 5.3% through the first five months of 2001. After rising by 3.0% during 2000, book industry average prices had risen to a point 3.9% higher than a year earlier during May of this year. Only greeting card prices—1.5% higher this May versus last, after rising by 2.0% between 1999 and 2000—had registered lower inflation than a year ago among the major groups within printing/publishing.