U.S. Producer Prices Show Unexpected Decrease In May

(RTTNews) - Partly reflecting a notable decrease in prices for trade services, the Labor Department released a report on Friday showing an unexpected decrease in U.S. producer prices in the month of May.

The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand dipped by 0.2 percent in May after climbing by 0.6 percent in April.

The modest decrease by the index came as a surprise to economists, who had expected prices to inch up by 0.1 percent.

Excluding food and energy prices, core producer prices edged down by 0.1 percent in May following a 0.5 percent increase in April. Economists had expected core prices to tick up by 0.1 percent.