The annual Producer Price Index climbed 2.6 per cent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists had predicted a jump of 3.3 per cent. 

On a monthly basis, wholesale prices fell 0.1 per cent, falling well short of Wall Street estimates of a rise of 0.3 per cent. 

The data comes after an unexpectedly steep annual rise of 3.3 per cent in wholesale prices in July appeared to signal that Trump’s aggressive tariffs had begun to feed through to the US economy.

But the more muted figure for August complicates that picture.