Wholesale inflation eases to 2.3% in April, lowest level in two years

Inflation at the wholesale level rose less than expected in April, the latest sign that painfully high consumer prices are beginning to loosen their stranglehold on the U.S. economy one year after the Federal Reserve began rapidly raising interest rates.

The Labor Department said Thursday that its producer price index, which measures inflation at the wholesale level before it reaches consumers, climbed 0.2% in April from the previous month. On an annual basis, prices are up 2.3%.

Those figures are both lower than the 2.4% headline increase and 0.3% monthly figure forecast...