January wholesale inflation surged 9.7% from a year ago

A selection of beef cuts is displayed at a Publix Supermarket, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, in Miami. The Labor Department said Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, that consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with a year earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982. The acceleration of prices ranged across the economy, from food and furniture to apartment rents, airline fares and electricity. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wholesale inflation in the United States surged again last month, rising 9.7% from a year earlier in a sign that price pressures remain high at all levels of the economy. 

The Labor Department said Tuesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — jumped 1% from December. The year-over-year increase was down from the record 9.8% recorded in both November and December but was well above what economists had been expecting. 

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Excluding food and energy prices, wholesale inflation rose 0.8% from December and 8.3% from January 2021.