US monthly producer prices unexpectedly declined in March

Wholesale prices in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in March, largely driven by a sharp decline in energy costs.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) showed that the prices paid to producers fell 0.4% in March while slowing to an annual rate of 2.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The report did show, however, that the price of goods — excluding energy and food — increased 0.3% in March.

Notably, there was an 11.1% drop in gasoline prices in March, according to the BLS.

The report comes on the heels of a Thursday BLS report showing that the Consumer Price Index, a measure of the price of everyday goods, increased just 2.4% in March, beating economists’ expectations. The CPI also declined partly due to a drop in energy prices, which fell 2.4% in March, the BLS reported.

President Donald Trump has taken several executive actions aiming to bring down the cost of living for American households during his second term, including signing a presidential memorandum in January intending to deliver “emergency price relief” to Americans.

The president also introduced a Jan. 20 executive order, titled “Unleashing American Energy,” aiming to “restore economic prosperity” to Americans. Trump claimed in the executive order that high energy costs have devastated consumers in recent years “by driving up the cost of transportation, heating, utilities, farming, and manufacturing, while weakening our national security.” The order further required the heads of all federal agencies to review all existing agency actions that “impose an undue burden” on the development of domestic energy.

Former President Joe Biden, who strongly supported policies promoting “green” energy development and pursued more stringent regulations on fossil fuel production, presided over high energy costs and soaring inflation during his time in office, which imposed steep costs on American households.

While there have been indications that U.S. inflation has begun to ease in recent months, Trump’s ongoing trade war with a spate of foreign countries has caused some economic uncertainty among consumers. Recent polling suggests that some Americans disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy during his second term, as the stock market has responded to Trump’s actions on trade with some volatility.

The majority of voters, 54%, said they disapprove of Trump’s early job performance on the economy, while only 44% approved, according to an NBC News poll released March 16.

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