1) The ones interested in a PPI, would be firms and consumers. The firms are going to buy goods and soon turn their costs over to the consumers so therefore consumers may also be interested. The PPI is going to be a good starting indication of predicting the changes to occur in the consumer price index. More specifically it looks at 3 different sectors: industry based, commodity based, and technology or service. Therefore all these parties involved are also interested in this PPI statistic.
2) Data is collected through a survey. Each establishment is picked systematically through a listing called the Unemployment Insurance System. The individual products from the firms are selected through a technique named disaggregation. After the firm is chosen it must report, confidentially, the prices every month for the products selected by the economist. Every month about 100,000 prices are sent out from 30,000 reports. The methods used for this are usually my mail however there is some electronic reports submitted. About every 7 years a new establishment is picked.
3) The PPI for finished goods fell by .6 percent in February. This decrease is new due to the fact that in January there was a 1.4% increase and in December a .4% increase also.
References:
Mankiw, N. Gregory. Essentials of Economics. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western, 2007. Print.
PPI Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.bls.gov/ppi/ppifaq.htm#21
