Inflation at the wholesale level declined more than expected in December, the latest sign that painfully high consumer prices are finally beginning to loosen their stranglehold on the U.S. economy.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that its producer price index, which measures inflation at the wholesale level before it reaches consumers, declined 0.5% in December from the previous month. On an annual basis, prices are up 6.2%.
Those figures were both lower than the 6.8% headline figure and 0.1% monthly decline forecast by Refinitiv economists, a welcoming sign for the Federal Reserve as it seeks to cool price gains and tame consumer demand with the most aggressive interest rate hike campaign since the 1980s.
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