Core inflation rose for a third consecutive month, the producer price index showed Thursday. | Economy
Prices charged by U.S. producers of goods and services rose by 2.1 percent over the twelve months through March, an increase over the 1.6 percent annual inflation recorded in the previous month.
Despite the increase in the year-over-year inflation, rate, there was some good news in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ producer price index (PPI) for final demand. The monthly increase slowed to 0.2 percent in March from 0.6 percent in February.
Economists had forecast worse. The year-over-year figure was seen as rising to 2.3 percent and the forecast for the monthly figure was for a 0.3 percent increase.
Core PPI, which excluded food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent, matching the consensus forecast and down from February’s 0.3 percent rise. The annual increase came in at 2.4 percent, just ahead of the expectation for a 2.3 percent rise.
This was the highest annual increase in core PPI since September. The core inflation metric has now climbed for three consecutive months.
So-called “core core” PPI, which excludes a measure of profit margins called trade services as well as food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent, down from the downwardly revised 0.
