There’s been a lot of media coverage of inflation since the April consumer price index (CPI) report. Consumer prices rose 0.8 percent in April, the fastest pace in more than a decade. That’s following 0.6 percent in March, and 0.4 percent in February. Combined, on an annualized rate, those three months are on an inflation growth trend of 7.2 percent - the fastest increase since 2008. It wasn’t all bullish commodity markets that pushed up consumer inflation. Energy prices declined 0.1 percent in April while food prices were up 0.4 percent. Instead, it was all the other sectors rebounding from COVID: used cars and trucks were up 10 percent, the largest gain ever since tracking started in 1953. Much of the gain was also push...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.