By Sarah Chaney and Eric Morath 
 

WASHINGTON-A gauge of business prices was soft in November, according to Thursday's Labor Department report. Here are key takeaways:

-The producer-price index, a measure of the prices businesses receive for their goods and services, remained unchanged in November from a month earlier. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected prices to rise 0.2% from October.

-Excluding the often-volatile food and energy categories, producer prices were down 0.2% in November from the prior month.

-Compared with November 2018, the overall PPI was up 1.1% last month, down from a recent peak of 2.4% in April. Excluding food and energy, the index was up 1.3%.

-Weakness in producer prices adds to the evidence that inflation remains tame. The producer-price measure typically tracks the same trends as other broad inflation gauges, though it does not always translate into what consumers pay. A gauge of prices paid by the average American, the consumer-price index, rose moderately in November.

Write to Sarah Chaney at sarah.chaney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2019 08:45 ET (13:45 GMT)