U.S. suppliers’ price increases eased a little in April as energy and food costs dropped, but producer-level inflation remained close to historic highs.
The Labor Department on Thursday said the producer-price index, which generally reflects supply conditions in the economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in April from the prior month. That marks a deceleration from the upwardly revised 1.6% gain in March, which was pushed up by surging energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. April’s rate of increase was the lowest since September 2021, but was higher than the average monthly gain of 0.2% in the two years before the pandemic.