WASHINGTON - A sharp slowdown in energy price gains and a plunge in the cost of light trucks helped keep U.S. wholesale prices under wraps in February, the government said on Thursday in a report that could help sooth budding inflation fears.

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The Producer Price Index, which measures prices paid to farms, factories and refineries, rose 0.1 percent in February, the Labor Department said, well below the 0.4 percent increase economists on Wall Street had forecast.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, producer prices also rose a tame 0.1 percent.

The report showed a sharp slowdown in prices at the wholesale level. In January, producer prices had shot up 0.6 percent overall and 0.3 percent with food and energy stripped out.

The department said energy costs rose just 0.2 percent in February after a steep 4.7 percent climb a month earlier.

The rate of increase in the price of gasoline slowed to 2.0 percent from January’s 14.1 percent spike. In addition, the price of home heating oil, liquefied petroleum gas and diesel fuel - all of which had risen in January - turned down. Residential natural gas prices, however, continued to rise sharply.

While energy prices moderated, food prices rose 0.2 percent after a 1.4 percent plunge in January.

Prices for SUVs and light trucks dropped 1.9 percent on the heels of a big 1.1 percent gain in January. Car prices also moderated, rising only 0.2 percent in February after an outsized 0.6 percent rise a month earlier.

Further back in the production pipeline, costs continued to march higher.

So-called intermediate goods prices rose 0.9 percent and prices at the crude goods level rose 2.5 percent.

Some economists have expressed concern that sharp increases in commodity prices are offering an inflation warning sign. However, others have argued inflation at the retail level is unlikely to flare while the U.S. labor market is still quite weak. 

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