Wholesale prices were flat in February providing some more welcome news for inflation amid tariff fears, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.
The producer price index, considered a leading indicator for pipeline inflation pressures, showed no gain for the month after jumping an upwardly revised 0.6% in January. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 0.3% increase.
Excluding food and energy, core PPI decreased 0.1%, also against an estimate for a 0.3% increase. Core prices also excluding trade services showed a gain of 0.2%.
The report comes a day after the BLS reported that the consumer price index rose 0.2% for February, putting the headline inflation rate at 2.8%, a slight easing from January and some encouraging news at a time when markets are concerned over the impact that President Trump’s tariffs will have on costs.
Whereas CPI measures what consumers pay at the register for goods and services, PPI is a gauge of final demand prices that producers get for their products.
A 0.2% drop in services prices offset a 0.3% increase in goods. Two-thirds of the increase in goods came due to a 53.6% surge in chicken egg prices, the BLS said. Eggs have soared in part because of avian flu that has hit supplies, though there is some evidence that prices have eased in March as outbreaks have slowed.
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