US producer prices stand at 9.7% in January

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US producer prices stood at 9.7% in January on an annual basis, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Labor Department.

The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures changes in the price of goods and services from a producer perspective, was expected to show an annual increase of 9.1% last month. The December figure came at 9.8%.

The PPI rose 1% in January from the previous month, coming higher than the market expectation of 0.5%. It stood at 0.4% in December.

Core producer prices, which exclude food, energy and trade, moved up 0.9% in January, compared to the previous month.

Core PPI in January increased 6.9% on an annual basis, still the highest on record.

Record high inflation has become a huge problem for the American economy and the Federal Reserve will move next month to tame that.

The Fed is expected to make a rate hike of 25, or even 50 basis points, at the conclusion of its two-day meeting on March 16.