THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100501
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Digest
LENGTH: Short : 27 lines
Wholesale prices fell 0.1 percent in October, the second drop in three months as energy costs dipped for the fifth time in a row and helped keep inflation in check. The Labor Department said its Producer Price Index reversed course from September, when drought-wilted vegetable crops helped drive wholesale prices up 0.3 percent. Food costs, which rose 1 percent in September, were unchanged in October. Analysts had expected little change in the PPI, which measures cost pressures before they reach the consumer level. Wholesale prices had last dropped in August, when they fell a similar 0.1 percent. So far this year, prices at the wholesale level are rising at an annual rate of just 1.4 percent, less than the 1.7 percent advance in 1994. ``Inflation pressures appear largely absent no matter where you look in the U.S. economy,'' economists at First Chicago Capital Markets said. (AP) by CNB