By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. wholesale prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in January, marking the first increase after three straight drops, mainly because of a spike in vegetable prices. Excluding the volatile categories of food and energy, so-called core producer prices also rose 0.2%, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had predicted a 0.4% increase in the overall producer price index and a 0.2% rise in core PPI. Food costs jumped 0.7% last month, led by a 39% advance in vegetable prices. Higher food prices accounted for more than three-quarters of the increase in PPI. Energy prices fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4%, though the data failed to capture the recent surge in gasoline costs. Those increases are expected to show up in the February report. Over the past 12 months wholesale prices have risen an unadjusted 1.4%. The core rate has risen 1.8% in that span, down from 2.0% in December. That's the lowest level since the first month of 2011.
