Allied and Miscellaneous Paint Products PPI: What the Index Measures
Allied and Miscellaneous Paint Products, up about 0.3% from a year ago. The source measures allied and miscellaneous paint products. It is not an aggregate index for all paints and coatings, and it cannot be substituted automatically for the coating used on a production line.
The BLS Allied and Miscellaneous Paint Products Producer Price Index (WPU0623) reads 422.95 index (1982=100) for Aug 2026, up about 0.3% from a year ago. The reference period identifies the observation; a later website refresh does not turn it into a daily price. This is a producer price index, not a delivered quote in dollars per unit.
The source measures allied and miscellaneous paint products. It is not an aggregate index for all paints and coatings, and it cannot be substituted automatically for the coating used on a production line.
Read the definition before the number
Use the supplier's quoted price for the specified coating or allied product. A coating application estimate also needs volume solids, dry film thickness, transfer efficiency and waste. None of those physical properties can be inferred from this PPI.
An index describes price movement for its specified basket. It does not say that every product or every supplier moved by the same amount. Distribution, customer mix and the terms of an individual transaction can produce a different invoice result. Keep the agency identifier beside the label so a similar-sounding category is not silently substituted.
Index points and percentage changes
For two observations from the same series, the percentage change is 100 × (new index / old index − 1). A rise from 200 to 210 is 5%, not 10%. Different PPIs can have different bases and product baskets; subtracting their raw levels does not yield a dollar premium.
A price change in this particular product group does not establish a trend for every coating chemistry. Check the product scope and the terms of a proposed escalation clause before treating the series as relevant.
Source and update notes
The source is BLS series WPU0623, also published by FRED at https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WPU0623. The linked data page provides the current observation and available history. A successful refresh changes readings only when the source returns changed data. Missing or failed observations must retain their original periods and be reported as unavailable or delayed.