October Wholesale Prices Dip Record 2.8%

By Martin Crutsinger

WASHINGTON -- Wholesale prices plunged a record amount in October as energy prices fell by the largest amount in 22 years.

The Labor Department says wholesale prices dropped by 2.8% in October, the biggest one-month decline on records that go back more than 60 years. The previous record holder was a 1.6% fall in October 2001, the month after the terrorist attacks.

The overall decline in the department's Producer Price Index was bigger than the 1.8% drop analysts had expected. However, core inflation, which excludes energy and food, was not as well-behaved, rising by a bigger-than-expected 0.4%.