US wholesale inflation slid in March as energy prices fell
WASHINGTON — Inflation at the wholesale level slid last month, pulled down by plummeting energy prices.
The Labor Department said Thursday that its producer price index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach consumers, fell 0.1 per cent in March, the first drop since August. Wholesale prices rose 0.3 per cent in February and 0.6 per cent in January. Producer prices were up 2.3 per cent in March from a year earlier, the sharpest annual increase in five years.
Energy prices tumbled 2.9 per cent, including an 8.3 per cent drop in gasoline.
But excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core wholesale inflation was unchanged in March and is up just 1.6 per cent over the past year.