U.S. wholesale prices rise 1 percent in March

U.S. wholesale prices surged by 1 percent in March, following an even bigger spike of 1.3 percent in February, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The sizable increase in the department's Producer Price Index, which measures the costs of goods before they reach store shelves, was led by rising gasoline and food.

Data showed that all energy prices shot up by 3.6 percent in March, the most since November. Gasoline costs jumped by 8.7 percent, also the highest since November.

Prices for residential natural gas increased 3.3 percent. Diesel fuel costs surged 8.8 percent in March. Costs for liquefied petroleum gas, such as propane, rose by 6.5 percent.

Meanwhile, food prices rose by 1.4 percent, following an advance of 1.9 percent in February. Prices for vegetables, beef and veal, dairy products and processed young chickens, and other things all increased in March.

Excluding volatile energy and food prices, however, the core inflation at wholesale level was flat in March. That marked an improvement from a 0.4 percent gain in February.

Before the department released the report, analysts had been expecting overall wholesale inflation to increase by 0.7 percent and the core inflation to gain 0.2 percent in March.

Source: Xinhua