Producer Prices Up 0.4%; Core Rate Increases 0.1%

WASHINGTON — Producer prices rose more than economists expected in September, jumping 0.4% due to higher food prices, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Core prices, excluding food and energy goods, edged up 0.1% for the month. Economists expected increases of 0.2% in producer prices and 0.1% in core prices, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.

The August gain in producer prices was unrevised at 0.4% and the core was unchanged at 0.1%. Finished food prices increased 1.2% in September, accounting for about two-thirds of the total monthly expansion in producer prices.

“Headline producer inflation [has] now risen for three consecutive months following declines in the prior three months,” Steven Wood, chief economist at Insight Economics, said in a research note. “Core producer prices rose slightly in September. On a year-on-year basis, core producer inflation remains subdued, although it has slowly climbed over the past six months.”

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