WASHINGTON - Producer prices rose 0.8% in April, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Core prices, which exclude food and energy goods, rose 0.3%.
The gain in producer prices was higher than the 0.6% increase projected by economists, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters. Economists were slightly low with their projection for a 0.2% gain in core prices.
The 08% gain in producer prices followed an unrevised 0.7 increase in March.
The April gain was, as expected, led by energy, with finished energy goods rising 2.5% for the month. Gasoline rose 3.6%.
For core goods the biggest gains were an unusual 4.8% increase in tire prices, the largest since August 1976, and a 1.2% rise in the price of civilian aircraft, the biggest since July 2004. Prices for passenger cars rose 0.5%.
The 12-month figure for finished goods suggests inflationary pressures may be building in the economy. Farther back in the production pipeline, April core intermediate goods were up 5.6% and crude energy prices, reflecting rising natural gas as well as oil costs, rose 4.8%.
