US PPI drops in December in line with forecasts

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | January 20 2010 8:46 AM

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - The US producer price index dropped to 0.2 % in December from 1.8% the previous month, giving more fuel to the Fed to keep interest rates at their all-time low as inflation stays at minimal levels.

Sponsorship Link

This monthly PPI decrease is in line with market expectations of a fall to 0.1%.

The core PPI, which excludes products with prices that tend to be volatile such as food and energy, remained unchanged at 0.5% for the final two months of last year.

In yearly terms, the PPI grew to 4.4% between December 2009 and December 2008. Analysts had expected a similar increase from November's year-over-year rate of 2.4%.

The annual core PPI fell to 1.0% in December from 1.2% the previous month as the market had predicted.

.