The preliminary value for the April CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; the most recent available) rose 0.4% from the final March value, after dropping the previous month. The gain was mostly due to a rise in the Equipment subindex. The Engineering Supervision and Construction Labor subindices rose slightly, while the Buildings subindex was unchanged. The overall PCI value for April 2014 stands at 0.75% higher than the value from April of last year. Meanwhile, updated values for the Current Business Indicators (CBI) from IHS Global Insight saw both the CPI Output Index and the CPI Value of Output rise from the previous values, while the Productivity Index for chemicals dipped slightly.
Current Economic Trends
| By Scott Jenkins