Rise in US wholesale prices for January is higher than expected

U.S. wholesale prices came in hotter than expected last month.

The Labor Department reported Friday that its producer price index, which measures inflation before it hits consumers, rose 0.5% from December and 2.9% from January 2025. Economists had forecast a 0.3% increase for the month and 1.6% year over year, according to a survey by the data firm FactSet.

Excluding food and energy prices, which bounce around from month to month, so-called core wholesale prices rose 0.8% from December and 3.6% from January 2025—both higher than forecasters had expected.

Energy prices were down. Wholesale gasoline prices fell 5.5% from December and plunged 15.7% from a year earlier.

Driving the increase was an uptick in the wholesale price of services, led by higher profit margins for retailers and wholesalers.

The producer price report comes two weeks after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose just 2.4% last month compared to a year earlier, closing in on the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.