WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. producer prices rose more than expected in January, statistics released by the Labor Department showed on Thursday.
The producer price index (PPI) rose 0.7% last month after posting a 0.2% drop in December (revised from -0.5%).
Over one year, its rise was 6.0% against 6.5% (revised) a month earlier.
Economists polled by Reuters on average expected an increase of 0.4% over one month and 5.4% over one year.
The index measuring underlying pressures on producer prices, excluding food, energy and commercial services, rose by 0.6% after +0.2% in December.
The growth of the “core” index was 4.5% on an annual basis, after +4.7%.
On the markets, futures contracts on the main Wall Street indices have accentuated their losses after the announcement of these figures which feed the fears that the Federal Reserve sticks to a restrictive policy for a long period.
At the same time, US Treasury yields turned higher, as did the dollar against other major currencies.
(Laetitia Volga, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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