A worker arc welds a metal door at the Metal Manufacturing Co. facility in Sacramento, California, U.S., on Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
No one likes being the person who goes “but actually…”. Sometimes, however, it is necessary.
The U.S. producer price index in June was flat, meaning that wholesale prices remained stagnant from May to June. This might suggest that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are hitting the economy less than feared, in contrast to what the uptick in June’s consumer price index suggested.
But actually, the PPI measures prices at the level of the manufacturer — which is located in America. In other words, the index “does not include imports, because imports are by definition not produced by domestic firms,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By contrast, the CPI considers all goods and services that the consumer purchases, regardless of their country of origin. As the BLS elaborates, “imports compose a substantial portion of the CPI especially within the apparel and new-cars component.” While new vehicle prices fell 0.3% in June, those of apparel rose 0.4%, suggesting that the effects of tariffs are starting to show in some components of the CPI.
But actually, we might not know the full effect of the tariffs until after Aug. 1 when the updated ones kick in — provided Trump keeps to the deadline this time.
What you need to know today
And finally…
Google’s Portugal Country Manager Bernardo Correia (R) receives guests during Google’s event to celebrate the landing of its subsea cable on May 17, 2022, in Sesimbra, Portugal.
Horacio Villalobos | Corbis News | Getty Images
Meta and Google are laying a web of globe-spanning subsea cables. We found out what’s involved
U.S. hyperscalers Meta and Alphabet‘s Google are rolling out a fast-growing web of transcontinental subsea cables, looking to keep pace with ever-increasing bandwidth demand and artificial intelligence workloads.
Researchers at the U.K.’s Oxford Internet Institute said Meta and Google’s rollout of large-scale subsea cables underscores the fact that Big Tech firms “are now large enough to have a business case for individually financing something that previously required a consortium to make economic sense.”
— Sam Meredith
