ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Producer price index

Imagine you are a bird, living in a tree, and you have a treehouse where you make toys for your bird friends. Every day, you go out to buy materials like feathers, glue, and paint from the nearby store to make your toys.

The producer price index (PPI) is like a report that tells us how much the things you buy to make your toys (materials) cost you.

For example, if one day your feathers cost you $1, your glue cost you $2, and your paint cost you $3, then your total cost for materials that day is $6.

Now, imagine you keep track of the cost of your materials every day for a whole year. At the end of the year, you can look back and see how much the cost of your materials changed over time. Maybe the cost of feathers went up to $2, glue stayed the same at $2, and paint went down to $2.50.

The PPI is like a big report for all the toy makers in the country. It shows how much the cost of materials (like feathers, glue, and paint) has changed over time for all the toy makers in the country.

People usually use the PPI to see if prices are going up or down for the people who make and sell things (producers). When prices go up, it usually means that the people who make and sell things may have to charge more money for their things.

So, the PPI helps people know how much it costs to make things, and if things are getting more expensive to make. That way, people can make better decisions about how much to charge for their things, and how much money they need to make.