WASHINGTON — Wholesale prices in the United States rose 6.2 percent in December from a year earlier, a sixth straight slowdown and a hopeful sign that inflation pressures will continue to cool.
The latest year-over-year figure was down from 7.3 percent in November and from a recent peak of 11.7 percent in March. On a monthly basis, the government said Wednesday that its producer price index, which measures costs before they reach consumers, dropped 0.5 percent from November to December.
The producer price data can provide an early sign of where consumer inflation might be headed. The data reflects the prices that are charged by manufacturers, farmers and wholesalers, and it flows into an inflation gauge that the Federal Reserve closely tracks, the personal consumption expenditures price index.
The ongoing slowdown in wholesale price growth is adding to evidence that the worst bout of inflation in four decades is steadily easing, though it remains far above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent.
Last month’s drop was led by gas prices, which sank 13.4 percent from November to December. Gas prices averaged $3.36 a gallon Wednesday, according to AAA, down from a peak of $5 a gallon in mid-June.
Food prices fell by a sharp 1.2 percent, led by fruits, vegetables and chicken. One exception was egg prices. Driven up in part by a wave of avian flu, egg prices soared 25 percent just from November to December.
Excluding volatile energy and food costs, so-called core producer prices rose only 0.1 percent from November to December. Measured year over year, core prices increased 5.5 percent in December, compared with 6.2 percent in November.
“The big picture is one of rapid disinflation, with much more to come,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Producer prices in the nation’s vast service sector — everything from restaurants and hotels to airlines and entertainment venues — ticked up just 0.1 percent from November to December, the smallest such increase since last April. The Fed has been monitoring this area of the economy in particular as it assesses its progress in combating high inflation.
