Is this really a technical problem or have producer prices risen so much that they created a technical problem to manipulate the index? from the press release:
As announced on February 17, the release of the Producer Price Index (PPI) for January 2004 has been delayed from the originally scheduled date of February 19, 2004. In addition, as announced on March 5, the release of February data originally scheduled for Friday, March 12, has also been postponed.
The delays have been caused by unexpected difficulties in the conversion of PPI data from the Standard Industrial Classification system to the North American Industry Classification System. These difficulties have taken far longer to resolve than we originally anticipated. We have made substantial progress towards completing the calculations underlying the January 2004 PPI. When revised release dates for the January and for the February 2004 Producer Price Indexes have been determined, we plan to announce them at least one day ahead of time on this web page and through news advisories. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expresses its sincere apologies to those who have experienced any problems as a result of this continuing delay.
