Reflecting a steep drop in energy prices, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected decrease in U.S. producer prices in the month of March.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand fell by 0.5 percent in March following a revised unchanged reading in February.
Economists had expected producer prices to come in unchanged compared to the 0.1 percent dip originally reported for the previous month.
The report also showed the annual rate of producer price growth slowed dramatically to 2.7 percent in March from 4.9 percent in February. Economists had expected the pace of growth to slow to 3.0 percent.
