US inflation at the wholesale level was tame in May, offering reassuring news for Federal Reserve policy-makers who will meet later this month to consider cutting interest rates.
The Labour Department said today its Producer Price Index - measuring prices paid to businesses for ready-to-sell goods such as clothing and petrol - inched up 0.1 per cent last month after a 0.3 per cent rise in April.
Food prices fell 0.4 per cent in May after a 0.6 per cent rise in April while energy prices rose a slight 0.2 per cent in the latest month after inching up 0.1 per cent.
Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, the so-called core PPI rose 0.2 per cent in May after a matching 0.2 per cent gain April.
May's rise in wholesale prices was more modest than expected. Wall Street analysts, on average, projected a 0.3 per cent gain in the PPI and a 0.1 per cent rise in the core PPI.