Full text of U.S. Financial Data : June 14, 2001

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June 14, 2001

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
s Prices received by producers for finished goods rose 0.1 percent in
May according to the producer price index (PPI). Through the first
five months of 2001, the PPI has increased at a 3.8 percent annual
rate, slightly faster than the same period a year earlier (3.4 percent).
s In April, the current dollar value of total inventories held by
manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers rose $0.4 billion, which
was roughly unchanged in percentage terms. Total business sales,
by contrast, fell $4.0 billion in April—the fourth consecutive
decline. As a result, the total business inventory-to-sales ratio
rose to 1.44 in April, its highest level since January 1999.
s According to the advance report, May retail and food services sales
rose 0.1 percent. Sales in April are now estimated to have increased
1.4 percent, 0.3 percentage points more than last month’s advance
estimate. Total sales averaged $291.2 billion in April and May, up
1.2 percent from their average over the first three months of the year.
s In May, the index of prices paid for imported goods rose 0.3 percent,
or 3.8 percent at an annual rate. After falling 13.4 percent over the
first four months of the year, prices of imported petroleum goods
surged 5.5 percent in May. Prices of nonpetroleum goods, however,
fell 0.2 percent in May. Measured from a year earlier, total import
prices have declined 0.8 percent, while petroleum prices are down
1.8 percent and nonpetroleum prices have fallen 0.5 percent.

All data are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise indicated.
U.S. Financial Data is published weekly by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of
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Information in this publication is also included in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) data base
on the internet at www.stls.frb.org/fred.