Producer Price Growth Cools in March, Offering Some Inflation Relief

• Producer prices rose 0.2% in March, less than expected, providing some relief after hot consumer price data • Producer price index rose 2.1% over past 12 months, accelerating from 1.6% in February
• Increase driven by 0.3% rise in services, while goods prices dipped 0.1% • Auto insurance price growth much cooler in PPI than CPI, which will lower core PCE inflation measure • Economists say data not enough for Fed to cut rates quickly, but suggests underlying inflation may be easing