Greater costs for food pushed the U.S. producer price index higher in April, but wholesale-level inflation over the past year has fallen at the sharpest rate in nearly 60 years, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The headline producer price index rose 0.3% last month, reversing course following after a 1.2% drop in March. Food prices jumped 1.5% in April following a 0.7% drop in March. This was the largest increase since January 2008. Core producer prices, excluding volatile food and energy, rose 0.1% on the month. April's gains for both headline and core-rate PPI were in line with economists' expectations. The PPI index has fallen 3.7% in the past year, marking the biggest year-over-year fall since January 1950, the government said. Over the past year, core prices are up 3.4%. Still, core prices have been trending down since hitting a 4.7% year-over-year level last October. PPI details Energy prices fell 0.1% at the wholesale level in April, the data show. Prices for intermediate goods dropped 0.5% in April. Excluding food and energy, intermediate goods fell 0.9%, the biggest drop since last December. Prices for crude goods climbed 3.0%, the first gain in nine months. Crude food goods jumped 4.6%, the fastest pace since February 2007. In other economic data issused Thursday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment insurance rose 32,000 to stand at 637,000 in the latest week. Continuing claims also continued to trend higher.

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