'Expert' Economists Proven Wrong: Wholesale Prices Drop Amid Trump's Tariffs
U.S. wholesale prices dropped in April for the first time in more than a year despite all manner of consternation from “experts” over President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports.
The producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — fell 0.5 percent last month from March, the first drop since October 2023 and the biggest in five years.
Compared to a year earlier, producer prices rose just 2.4 percent last month, decelerating from a 3.4 percent year-over-year gain in March, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.
JUST IN: In April, wholesale prices saw the biggest monthly decline in more than five years.
“You saw a much bigger cooling of inflation at the producer price level month-to-month.” pic.twitter.com/IDdZhxcd7M
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 15, 2025
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, core wholesale prices dipped 0.4 percent from March.
Economists had forecast that producer prices rose modestly in April.
Services prices fell 0.7 percent, the biggest drop in government records going back to 2009, on shrinking profit margins at wholesalers and retailers.
Wholesale food prices fell 1 percent, and egg prices plunged 39 percent (lingering bird flu issues are still affecting some prices).
On Tuesday, the Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose just 2.3 percent last month from April 2024 — the smallest year-over-year gain in more than four years.
Economists have predicted that Trump’s tariffs would drive up prices, and many expect the impact to show up in June or July.
Trump’s tariffs haven’t just had a tangible impact on prices.
Those tariff policies have brought other countries to the table — often seeking a deal.
On Monday, for instance, Trump unexpectedly agreed to a massive de-escalation of his trade war with China — third-biggest source of U.S. imports — by scaling back his taxes on Chinese products to 30 percent from 145 percent in exchange for China slashing its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products from 125 percent to a mere 10 percent.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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