New inflation numbers out Thursday show consumer prices are likely to keep rising

For months, Americans have been watching prices go up, and families have been struggling to make ends meet. New economic numbers out Thursday indicate lower prices are likely not around the corner. The producer price index — which captures inflation before it reaches consumers — went up 1.1% in May, and it’s up 6.5% compared to May 2025. That’s the highest year-over-year change since November 2022. A report Wednesday put consumer inflation at 4.2%, so Thursday’s new data shows producers, or wholesalers, are paying higher inflation than individual customers. That means Americans can probably expect prices to keep going up. “It's entirely reasonable to think that with wholesale prices rising further and more, that that has to be passed along at least to some degree to consumers. They can eat some of the price increase at the retail level, but that remains to be seen,” explained Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate. The biggest reason for higher prices is energy. Wholesale gasoline prices surged by more than 23% from April to May — up nearly 70% from a year ago. ------------------------------------- Follow Scripps News on other platforms— Join our newsletter at https://bit.ly/2q1tepr Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scrippsnews/ Follow us on X: https://x.com/scrippsnews Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scrippsnews/ Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scrippsnews