According to the U.S. Department of Labor , the Producer Price Index (PPI) for finished goods rose 0.3 percent in February.
The increase followed a 1 percent increase in January and a 0.3 percent decline in December. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods moved up 0.8 percent in February subsequent to a 1.4 percent increase in January. The crude goods index rose 3.7 percent after climbing 2.5 percent in the prior month.