U.S. wholesale prices advance 0.5% in March - PPI up 1.4% in past 12 months, core 1.4%

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-wholesale-prices-advance-05-in-march-2014-04-11?link=MW_home_latest_news

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. wholesale prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in March, mainly because of higher costs for service providers such as food and clothing retailers, the Labor Department reported Friday. The price of wholesale services jumped 0.7% last month, while the cost of goods were flat. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted a 0.1% gain in the PPI. Wholesale food costs increased 1.1% last month, but energy prices sank 1.2%. Excluding the volatile categories of food and energy, core PPI prices rose 0.6% after falling 0.2% in February. Personal consumption, a new index that could foreshadow changes in the consumer price index, rose 0.6% in March. Over the past year producer prices for final demand have risen an unadjusted 1.4%. That's up sharply from 0.9% rate in February and is the highest since last August. Core prices have also climbed 1.4% in the same span.