President Donald Trump criticized Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on social media following the release of benign Producer Price Index (PPI) data on Wednesday.
"Just out: No Inflation!!! ’Too Late’ must lower the RATE, BIG, right now. Powell is a total disaster, who doesn’t have a clue!!!" Trump wrote.
The U.S. producer price index for final demand unexpectedly fell 0.1% in August, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. This decline followed a downwardly revised 0.7% increase in July. Economists had forecast the PPI would rise 0.3%.
The decrease was primarily driven by a 0.2% drop in services prices, which had previously rebounded 0.7% in July. Goods prices edged up 0.1% after increasing 0.6% in the prior month.
Year-over-year, the PPI increased 2.6% through August, down from 3.1% in July.
Despite Trump’s call for a significant rate cut and the softer-than-expected PPI data, investors still anticipate the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will lower interest rates by only 0.25% at next week’s meeting.
The PPI reading comes one day ahead of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, which is considered a key inflation indicator.