US Wholesale Inflation Surprisingly Eases on Drop in Food Prices

  • Producer price index rose 0.2% in December, below estimates
  • Categories that make up Fed’s preferred price gauge were mixed
WATCH: US wholesale inflation cools off in December.Source: Bloomberg
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US wholesale inflation unexpectedly cooled in December, helped by a drop in food costs and flat services prices that may help temper concerns of lingering price pressures.

The producer price index for final demand rose 0.2% from a month earlier, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Tuesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.4% gain. A measure excluding food and energy was unchanged from November.