THE ECONOMY: Up Go Prices

Prices, which have been relatively stable for months, last week started to climb again. Steelmakers, as expected, raised their prices about $4 a ton to pay for their latest wage boost. Their biggest customers, the automakers, said they would absorb the increase. But General Electric announced that it would boost the prices of many of its appliances, and others were thinking of following suit.

Crude oil, whose price had not been raised since 1947, went up 25¢ a barrel (to $2.90), even though there were some signs of an oil surplus. Said President John Brice of Carter Oil, a Jersey Standard subsidiary: "Costs of labor, materials and services have risen substantially, and an adjustment has been long overdue." The adjustment will mean higher home-heating costs next winter. Gasoline prices have already been raised in many states, and last week Standard of Ohio announced a boost of 1½¢ per gallon, the biggest yet.

These rises were partially offset by the continued weakness of farm prices, notably wheat. But farm prices steadied some last week after the Agriculture Department announced emergency loans would be granted for wheat "stored" in the open.

As for fears of a recession, G.E.'s Chairman Philip Reed declared that whatever temporary setback might come, the economy is "in a long-term upward trend." If consumers begin spending as big a percentage of their income as they did in 1929 or even 1939, said Reed, the annual demand for consumer products alone would increase by $7 billion a year. Evidence that they would continue to spend was provided by a Federal Reserve Board survey. The FRB reported that consumers are not only saving more money but "are in more of a buying mood than at [any] time . . . in recent years," partly because the median income has risen from $3,200 to $3,420 in a year.