In January plus 1.3% on the previous month, plus 1.7% on the same month last year
In the USA, producer prices rose faster than expected at the beginning of the year. In January they rose by 1.3 percent on a monthly basis, as the US Department of Labor announced on Wednesday. Economists had only expected growth of 0.4 percent on average. Without taking into account the strongly fluctuating prices for food and energy, the price increase was 1.2 percent in a month-on-month comparison.
In a year-on-year comparison, producer prices rose by 1.7 percent in January, which is also surprisingly strong. Analysts had only assumed an annual rate of 0.9 percent after it had been 0.8 percent in December. The rate of increase reached its highest level in a year.
