Equipment Prices Creep Up a Bit, 1.7%, in January

Printing equipment prices still reflect the weakness inherent in the economy as a whole. They started the year on the rise, with January 2003 seeing a 1.7% increase compared to January 2002.

Despite flat spending from December 2002 to January 2003 (0.0% change), 2002 saw percentage increases in each of the last nine months. Though the average annual price increase for the past four years has come in at under 1%, 2003 might be the year to break that cycle.

Average prices in the offset lithographic printing press category and the miscellaneous "not elsewhere classified" category both remained totally unchanged when comparing this January to the same month a year earlier.

The other (non-litho) printing press product group recorded a slight 0.9% uptick from a year earlier, similar to its annual price inflation gain of 0.6%.

As with average annual inflation, the only evidence of equipment price inflation comes from the binding machinery and equipment category. Average prices of machinery in this category rose 3.1% from January 2002 to January 2003, and 2.3% from 2001 to 2002.