US producer prices climbed last month at the fastest pace since November 2022, fuelled by a surge in energy prices after the start of the Iran war.

The Labor Department reported on Thursday that its producer price index — which captures inflation before it reaches consumers — jumped 6.5 per cent from May 2025. It rose 1.1 per cent from April, as it did the previous month. Wholesale gasolene prices surged by more than 23 per cent from April to May, and nearly 70 per cent from a year earlier.

Inflationary pressures, intensified by the energy shock caused by the Iran war, are frustrating Americans five months before midterm elections that will determine whether President Donald Trump's Republicans keep full control of Congress.