(Bloomberg) -- US producer-price gains slowed in November as energy costs declined, adding to signs that inflation pressures are abating.

The producer price index for final demand was unchanged from a month earlier. Excluding food and energy, the so-called core PPI was also flat, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed.

From a year ago, the overall measure was up 0.9%, while the core gauge was up 2%, the least since January 2021.

Inflation pressures have generally been cooling in recent months. Consumer-price data released Tuesday showed a decline in the annual rate of inflation — even though monthly gains picked up as housing and other service-sector costs rose. Taken together, the data help reinforce the notion that inflation is trending back toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Services prices were unchanged for the second straight month. Goods prices were also unchanged after a steep decline in October. Energy costs fell 1.2% last month.

Treasury yields and the dollar declined, and stock futures gained.

Economists watch the PPI report closely in part because several categories — including certain health-care items and portfolio management — are used to calculate the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures price gauge.

Most of those measures were soft in November, with physician-care services and nursing-home care unchanged. Hospital outpatient care, portfolio management and airline passenger services all declined. 

Stripping out food, energy and trade services to create a less-volatile PPI measure, prices rose 0.1% from the prior month. The measure increased 2.5% from a year earlier, the smallest gain since February 2021. 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues at the central bank are expected to leave their benchmark interest rate unchanged and issue new economic projections Wednesday afternoon at the conclusion of a two-day policy meeting.

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