MarketWatch (05/15/13) Jeffry Bartash

U.S. wholesale prices declined sharply in April by a seasonally adjusted 0.7% to mark the biggest drop in more than three years, the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had predicted a 0.7% decrease in April, following a 0.6% decline in March. Waning price pressures in April lowered the increase in wholesale costs over the past 12 months to 0.6% from 1.1%, the lowest level since last summer. The muted rate of inflation at both the producer and consumer levels gives the U.S. Federal Reserve more leeway to keep interest rates low though a strategy of buying huge amounts of mortgages and government debt.