NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Wholesale prices rose in November, the government reported Friday, with the measure of inflation before the retail level coming in above forecasts on Wall Street.
The Labor Department said the producer price index rose 0.5 percent last month, down from the 1.7 percent jump in October, when the report roiled bond markets and renewed inflation fears. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a 0.1 percent gain.
The so-called core PPI, which excludes often volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent, in line with forecasts and down from the 0.3 percent gain in October.
Energy costs were again a big driver of the price increase, rising 1.8 percent in the month. But that was down from the 6.8 percent rise in wholesale energy prices posted in October.
Food prices, the other big driver of the October price spike, also saw the rate of increase slow to a 0.4 percent rise. Food prices jumped 1.6 percent in October due partly to the effects of four major hurricanes hitting the southeastern U.S. in late August and September.
The November report showed that overall wholesale prices for finished goods are 5 percent higher than a year ago. That's more than the 4.4 percent rise posted in the October report, and it outpaces the 3.4 percent rise in consumer prices over the 12 months leading up to October, the most recent reading available.
The faster increase in wholesale prices than in consumer prices can put a squeeze on corporate profits overall. But oil prices, a key component of this wholesale price rise, have been retreating in recent weeks, lessening the impact that the report could have on stocks or bonds.
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