U.S. Producer Prices Unexpectedly Fall 0.4% In March

(RTTNews) - On the heels of yesterday's report showing a surprise dip by U.S. consumer prices, the Labor Department released a separate report on Friday showing U.S. producer prices also unexpectedly decreased in the month of March.

The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand fell by 0.4 percent in March after inching up by a revised 0.1 percent in February.

Economists had expected producer prices to rise by 0.2 percent compared to the unchanged reading originally reported for the previous month.

The report also showed the annual rate of producer price growth slowed to 2.7 percent in March from 3.2 percent in February. The annual rate of price growth was expected to creep up to 3.3 percent.