Climb Slows In Wholesale Price Index: Climb Slows In Wholesale Price Index
The nationÛªs inflation rate abruptly declined last month as the governmentÛªs wholesale pi'ice index inched upward 0.1 per cent, the smallest increase in nearly a year, the Labor Department said yesterday.</br></br>Farm and wholesale food prices, which had risen in July and August, reversed themselves in September and</br></br>All other wholesale prices in the economyÛÓall those in the non-farm, non-food industrial sectorÛÓrose 1 per cent, a huge increase by historical standards but less than half their upward movement in any other month since January.</br></br>The price increases all are adjusted by the department to take into account normal seasonal variations.</br></br>Although last monthÛªs wholesale price increase was small the overall index still was 19.7 per cent above a year ago and farm prices have turned back up again since the department sampled them in mid-September. The one-month leveling-off thus is not likely to be mirrored any time soon at the retail level.