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U.S. wholesale inflation picked up in June in sign that some price pressures remain elevated ========== Wholesale prices in the United States rose by a larger-than-expected 2.6% last month from a year earlier, a sign that some inflation pressures remain high. The increase, the sharpest year-over-year increase since March 2023, comes at a time when other price indicators are showing that inflation has continued to ease. The Labor Department said Friday that its producer price index rose 0.2% from May to June after being unchanged the month before. Excluding food and energy prices, core wholesale prices increased 0.4% from May and 3% from June 2023. The increase in wholesale inflation last month was driven by a sizable 0.6% rise in services prices, led by higher profit margins for machinery and auto wholesalers. The overall prices of goods fell 0.5%, with gasoline prices tumbling 5.8% at the wholesale level. The producer price index can provide an early sign of where consumer inflation is headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably health care and financial services, flow into the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, index. Friday’s wholesale figures follow the government’s report Thursday that consumer inflation cooled in June for a third straight month. As a whole, this week’s price figures, along with other recent data, still suggest a continued slowdown in the inflation that first gripped the nation three years ago, when the economy rocketed out of the pandemic recession, leaving deep supply shortages and sending prices soaring. https://apnews.com/article/inflation-wholesale-prices-consumer-federal-reserve-rates-6d8e19c4d9a7d75777ac720cfdf0ad53