Rising wholesale prices

It appears that as the oil price go back down; the wholesale items go up in price. Jumping up 1.7 percent, this is the largest jump in 15 years. With an overall increase of 6.8 percent in the energy prices, gasoline has gone up by 17 percent. Seeing that barrels of oil have lowered in price by $8, many economists feel that 2005 will have a better turn out for the consumer. But, this is not the only reason economists feel this way. The Federal Reserve is increasing interest rates to help give the economy a boost. The recent hurricanes that hit Florida are partly to blame for the raise in prices. Some economists are skeptical, saying that the rise in PPI, producer price index, has a chance of not raising the inflation on the retail level. According to recent entries in the CPI, consumer price index, economists expect to see a 0.4 percent increase. Sung Won Suhn feels that we have seen the peak of the oil prices and will soon see them fall again.