WASHINGTON — Producer prices rose 0.8% in January, led by a 1.8% increase in prices for finished energy goods, while core prices that exclude volatile food and energy costs rose 0.5%, the third consecutive gain, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
Economists were on target, expecting producer prices to rise 0.8%, but fell far short on the gain in core prices, projecting an increase of only 0.2%, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.