The strong increase in inventories was led by a 1.8 percent jump at the producer level.

Prices at the producer level rose a surprising 0.4 percent in January, driven by higher food costs.

Consumer prices are nonetheless rising faster than those at the producer level.

Prices at the producer level generally feed through to the consumer with a lag of several months.

Prices at the producer level rose a slim 0.2 percent in November.

At the producer level, in fact, tobacco prices rose last month.

The index showed a 0.7 percent surge in inflation at the producer level.

A government report yesterday, for example, showed that prices on the producer level remained well contained.

Just today, the government's report on prices at the producer level showed that inflation remained tame.

Prices at the producer level fell two-tenths of 1 percent in November.