Wholesale prices in the U.S. rose last month, remaining low but suggesting that the American economy has yet to completely vanquish inflationary pressure.
Thursday’s report from the Labor Department shows that its producer price index—tracking inflation before it hits consumers—rose 0.2% from September to October, up from a 0.1% gain the month before. Compared to last year, wholesale prices are up 2.4%, accelerating from a year-over-year gain of 1.9% in September.
A 0.3% increase in services prices drove the October increase. Wholesale goods prices edged up 0.1% after falling the previous two months. Excluding food and energy prices, which tend to bounce around from month to month, so-called core wholesale prices rose 0.3% from September and 3.1% from a year earlier. The readings were about what economists had expected.
Since peaking in mid-2022, inflation has fallen more or less steadily. But average prices are still nearly 20% higher than they were three years ago.
The October report on producer prices comes a day after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose 2.6% last month from a year earlier.
Most economists, though, say they think inflation will eventually resume its slowdown.
Inflation has been moving toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% year-over-year target, and the central bank’s inflation fighters have been satisfied enough with the improvement to cut their benchmark interest rate twice since September—a reversal in policy after they raised rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023.
