Compared with a year earlier, producer prices rose 2.6%.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core producer prices also fell 0.1% from July and were up 2.8% from a year earlier.
The numbers came in lower than economists had forecast. Trump’s tariffs were widely expected to send prices higher, but so far their impact has been muted. “The big picture remains that tariff effects are feeding through only slowly,” economist Stephen Brown of Capital Economics wrote in a commentary.
The wholesale price report came a day before the Labor Department releases its consumer price index. The CPI is expected to show consumer price inflation picked up slightly last month, rising 0.3% from July, up from a 0.2% increase the month before. Compared with a year earlier, consumer prices are expected to have risen 2.9% in August, up from 2.7% in July.
Wholesale prices can offer an early look at where consumer inflation may be headed. Economists also watch them because some components, notably measures of health care and financial services, flow into the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures price index.
The drop in producer prices makes it more likely the Fed will cut its benchmark interest rate next week for the first time this year.
Trump has been pressuring the Fed to cut rates, repeatedly saying Fed chair Jerome Powell has waited too long to act. “Just out: No inflation!!! ‘Too Late’ must lower the RATE, BIG, right now,” the president posted on social media. “Powell is a total disaster, who doesn’t have a clue.”
There are increasing signs the economy is weaker than previously thought. On Tuesday, the Labor Department reported employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the 12 months that ended in March.