US wholesale inflation picks up slightly in sign that some price pressures remain elevated

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices in the United States rose last month, remaining low but suggesting that the American economy has yet to completely vanquish inflationary pressure.

Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — rose 0.2% from September to October, up from a 0.1% gain the month before. Compared with a year earlier, wholesale prices were up 2.4%, accelerating from a year-over-year gain 1.9% in September. An increase in services prices drove the October increase.

Excluding food and energy prices, which tend to bounce around from month to month, so-called core wholesale prices rose 0.3 from September and 3.1% from a year earlier. The readings were about what economists had expected.

Since peaking in mid-2022, inflation has fallen more or less steadily. But average prices are still nearly 20% higher than they were three years ago — a persistent source of public exasperation that led to Donald Trump’s defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris in last week’s presidential election and the return of Senate control to Republicans.

The October report on producer prices comes a day after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose 2.6% last month from a year earlier, a sign that inflation at the consumer level might be leveling off after having slowed in September to its slowest pace since 2021. Most economists, though, say they think inflation will eventually resume its slowdown.