Inflation at the wholesale level plunged by the largest amount in nearly three years in February as the price of food and energy products including gasoline fell sharply.
The Labor Department reported that its Producer Price Index, which measures inflation before it reaches the consumer, fell by 1.4 percent last month after having risen by 0.3 percent in January. The drop in overall prices was much larger than Wall Street had been expecting. However, outside of energy and food, core inflation at the wholesale level rose by 0.3 percent, a bigger increase than the 0.1 percent that analysts were forecasting.
