Bureau of Labor Statistics to replace toilet paper with corn cobs in CPI

Fed's Poole Sees No Dollar Impact on Inflation

From Reuters
Tuesday, October 9, 2007

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSWAT00824620071010

ST. LOUIS -- Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis President William Poole said on Tuesday that the depreciation of the dollar should not hit inflation, owing to the limited pass-through from the currency via import prices.

"I do not see any implication for inflation, at least with the magnitude of the depreciation that we've seen so far," Poole told reporters after a speech to the Industrial Asset Management Council.

"I did not see any evidence of a raft of dollar price increases for foreign goods, with the exception obviously of commodities," he said, noting commodity prices were set in world markets. "But for manufactured goods, I think the pass-through is very, very small," he said.

Poole, who is a voter on the Fed's interest-rate setting committee this year, also said that inflation expectations remained well-anchored since the central bank cut interest rates by half a percentage point on September 18.

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Kimberly-Clark to Raise Diaper Prices

By The Associated Press
via Yahoo News
Tuesday, October 9, 2007

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071009/kimberly_clark_prices.html?.v=3

DALLAS (AP) -- Kimberly-Clark Corp., the maker of Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers, said Tuesday it would raise prices next year to offset higher costs for raw materials and energy.

The company said that beginning Feb. 3 it will boost prices by 4 to 7 percent on Huggies diapers and swim pants, Pull-Ups training pants, Goodnites youth pants, Cottonelle and Scott bathroom tissue, and Scott and Viva paper towels.

Kimberly-Clark sells more than $4 billion of those items annually in the United States, about one-fourth of the company's total revenue.

The Irving-based consumer-products company said in July it had seen costs for pulp and other raw materials and energy rise by $165 million in the first six months of the year -- more than the $150 million it had budgeted for the entire year.

The company has tried to offset the higher costs by boosting sales and cutting other costs. It has also been helped by the weak U.S. dollar, which makes Kimberly-Clark products cheaper overseas.

In recent years, Kimberly-Clark has been locked in price wars with rival Procter & Gamble Co. for dominance in the diaper market.

Shares of Kimberly-Clark rose 15 cents to close at $70.03 Tuesday. They have ranged from $63.79 to $72.79 in the past 12 months.

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