Wholesale prices definition
Wholesale prices
Wholesale prices measure the change in prices paid by retailers for finished goods, which are then sold at a markup by retailers to consumers. This means wholesale prices will typically rise and signal inflationary pressures occurring before that pressure is seen in rising headline retail costs. A rise in wholesale prices is most often caused by tariffs and international conflict affecting imports.
What is the wholesale price index?
The wholesale price index (WPI) measures the change in wholesale prices expressed in percentage change month to month or year to year. The WPI is an inflation indicator and may go by different names depending on the country.
For example, it is called the WPI in the UK but in the US it is termed the Producer Price Index (PPI). The products measured in the WPI also depend on the country.
Smaller countries tend to only measure the price changes of a few hundred products, while larger countries may measure thousands of products in the WPIs.