WASHINGTON - The Producer Price Index rose 0.2% in May on a seasonally adjusted basis the Labor Department reported Tuesday.
Core producer prices, excluding food and energy also rose 0.2%.
The median estimates from economists polled by Thomson Reuters were for no change in the overall number and a 0.2% increase for the core number.
Energy goods overall showed a 1.5% rise. Gasoline prices rose 2.7%. Auto prices rose 0.5%, and apparel gained 1.0%.
Food prices fell 1.4% overall. The big declines were in vegetables, down 12.2%, and fruit, down 11.1%.
Year-over-year the PPI was up 7.3%, its' largest increase since an 8.8% increase in the year ended September 2008. Core year-over-year producer prices rose 2.1%, their biggest increase since the 2.3% annual rise for the period ended August 2009.
The May increase for intermediate goods was 0.9% overall, the same as the core increase. Crude goods were down 4.1%, their biggest drop since a 4.4% drop in July 2009. Crude energy products fell 5.2%, including a 10.9% drop in petroleum. That suggests continuing relief from energy price increases.
Analysts got the basic trend of the PPI right for May. They had expected the recent decline and stabilization in energy prices to stop pushing up the headline number. They were expecting food prices to be tame as well.
