The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that wholesale price increases in the United States slowed down in July, indicating inflation pressures are easing as the Federal Reserve gets closer to cutting interest rates, likely starting next month. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe reports that according to the Labor Department, the Producer Price Index, which measures inflation before it affects consumers, increased by 0.1 per cent from June to July, down from a 0.2-per-cent rise the previous month. In comparison with the previous year, prices were up 2.2 per cent in July, the smallest increase since March and down from a 2.7-per-cent rise in June. These numbers show a consistent decrease in price increases since the peak in mid-2022 and suggest that they are moving closer to the Fed's 2-per-cent inflation target. On Wednesday, the Labor Department releases its Consumer Price Index, a well-known inflation measure. Tuesday's report showed that prices in the nation's vast service sector fell 0.2 per cent last month, the biggest drop since March, 2023. So-called core wholesale prices were unchanged from June and were up 2.4 per cent from July, 2023. The increases were milder than forecasters had expected.