Rising prices for electricity, food and autos pushed U.S. producer prices up 0.3% in January, while the cost of other goods and services climbed 0.4%, twice as high as expected.

The U.S. Labor Department report also indicates wholesale inflation is rising faster than expected, stirring fears that the Federal Reserve will push interest rates up at its next meeting in March.

The market had expected a rise of 0.2% in January, a far cry from the 0.6 percentage point gain in December.

The report suggests underlying inflation pressures were somewhat higher last month than financial markets had expected.

The Federal has raised short-term interest rates 14 times since June 2004 in a bid to head off the pressure of rising prices, and another rate hike is anticipated in March.

The producer price index was up 5.7% from January 2005, driven mostly by a 25% surge in the price of finished energy goods. However, core prices have increased just 1.5% in the last 12 months, suggesting energy price increases are not passing through to other goods.

Energy prices were flat in January. The cost of residential electricity soared three%, the largest monthly gain on record, while the price of residential natural gas climbed 0.8%. Those increases were offset by a 3.5% drop in the price of gasoline and a 6.8% decline in liquefied petroleum gas.

Food costs rose 0.2% after a hefty 0.8% gain in December.

The Labor Department said the price of passenger cars climbed 1.1%, while the price of light trucks was up 0.7% and civilian aircraft prices were 0.7% higher.