Wholesale Price Rate Is Called Encouraging
Wholesale prices in March advanced at a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.1 per cent, compared with a 0.7 per cent increase in February, the Labor Department reported yesterday.</br></br>Food prices, which fueled more than half of the hefty February increase, are the major factor in the more encouraging March report. Industrial commodities, generally considered to be a more reliable indicator of future retail price patterns, rose 0.3 per cent in December, and 0.4 per cent in both January and February.</br></br>In an interview with The Washington Post earlier this week, Herbert Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said Û÷Û÷We cannot go on having industrial commodities at wholesale rise at the rate of the last three months (December, January and February) and achieve the (2 to 3 per cent inflation) taregt.Û</br></br>During the three months referred to by Stein, industrial commodities advanced at a 4.4 per cent annual rate. The March advance alone works out to an annual rate of 3.6' per cent.</br></br>Ip the four monthÛªs including the latest report, the industrial commodity component increased at an annual rate of 4.2 per cent.