WASHINGTON - Producer prices exceeded the expectations of economists and made their biggest increase of 1997 during September.
The Labor Department reports prices producers received for finished goods climbed 0.5 percent, the largest increase since last December.
Most economists were forecasting an increase of only 0.2 percent.
The so-called core rate of inflation, all prices except those for food and energy, jumped 0.4 percent, the largest increase in nearly two years. The core rate inched up 0.1 percent in August.
Last month's increase was only the second of the year. Producer prices rose 0.3 percent in August. But for the first seven months of 1997, producer prices had dropped.
The Labor Department says so far this year, producer prices have gone down at an annual rate of 1.4 percent.
In its report, Labor says energy prices rose 1.5 percent, the biggest increase of the year. Prices rose for gasoline, residential electricity and natural gas, and fell for heating oil.
Food prices rose 0.1 percent. Prices fell for beef, pork, poultry and vegetables but climbed for fish and fruit.
Prices for passenger cars made their biggest increase since October 1991, and light trucks had their biggest climb since 1989.
Prices fell for electronic computers but rose for tobacco products.
The Labor Department also measures prices for intermediate goods, which need further processing. An example is flour, which will be used to make a finished good such as a loaf of bread. Intermediate goods rose just 0.3 percent in September.
Crude goods rose 0.6 percent. Crude materials are not yet manufactured and are things like grains and raw cotton.
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