U.S. wholesale inflation rose last month on higher energy prices, the Associated Press reports.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — rose 0.2% last month from November, down from a 0.4% gain the month before. Compared to a year earlier, producer prices were up 3.3%, down from 3.4% year-over-year increase in November. The increases were slightly less than economists had forecast.
The producer price report came out a day before the Labor Department reports on consumer prices. Its consumer price index is expected to rise 0.3% from November and 2.8% from December 2023, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.
Wholesale prices can offer an early look at where consumer inflation might be headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably health care and financial services, flow into the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, index.
