US inflation worries may be stoked after wholesale prices increased more than expected in May, offical figures showed today.
A surge in energy costs pushed up US producer prices by a sharper than expected 0.9% in May, the US Labor Department said.
The producer price index, a gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, indicated that 'core' prices excluding food and energy rose a tamer 0.2%.
The headline price index was higher than the rise of 0.6% expected on Wall Street, while the core rate - seen by some experts as a better measure of future price trends- was in line with forecasts.
Producer prices have now risen 4.1% over the past year but core prices are up just 1.6%.
A major factor in May was energy prices, which jumped 4.1% after a 3.4% rise in April. Petrol prices alone were up 10.2%.
Food prices meanwhile fell 0.2%, the first decline in seven months.
