Producer prices in the United States jumped 0.7% in February after a modest 0.2% gain in January that followed three consecutive monthly declines.
The overall increase largely reflected higher energy prices which jumped 3.0% in February, driven largely by an outsized 7.2% surge in gas prices.
With that said, the monthly rise in energy prices still only partially retraced the cumulative 4.8% decline over the previous four months and left the year-over-year rate of growth at a still modest 1.1%.
Food prices provided some offset, falling 0.5% in February reflecting a sizeable drop in the price of vegetables. Excluding both the volatile food and energy components, core producer prices rose a modest 0.2%, matching the gain in January and only slightly above the 0.1% increase in December.
Experts note that, on a year-over-year basis the rate of increase in the overall PPI index remained modest at 1.7% in February, although that is up slightly from the 1.4% pace in January. Core price growth over the last year was similarly subdued, with the annual pace of growth in the measure slipping to 1.7% from 1.8% in January and 2.0% in December.
Related Stories
