Wholesale prices in the united states reaccelerated in January, indicating that inflation pressures continue to underlie the US Economy despite longer-term signs of improvement. From December to January, the government's producer price index jumped 0.7%, driven up in part by a 5% surge in energy prices.
It was a substantial increase, as previously producer price index dropped 0.2% from November to December. It was also nearly twice the rise that economists had been expecting.
In the energy sector, wholesale gasoline prices in January were up 6.2% compared to December. Diesel fuel prices were up 10.9% and natural gas for homes were up 12.2%.
However, food prices fell 1% the second straight monthly drop. Egg prices sank 12.7% from December to January / but are still up more than 200% from a year ago.
While the monthly inflation surge was worse than expected, price increases measured over the past year continued to show a slowdown.
Wholesale prices in January were up 6% from 12 months earlier, compared with a 6.5% year-over-year rise in December and a recent peak of 11.7% in March. It was the seventh straight month of decelerating year-over-year wholesale inflation, though it still came in higher than forecasters had expected.
