News In Brief
| Washington
Wholesale prices increase; factory output rises
Wholesale prices climbed a scant 0.2 percent in September, the Labor Department said Friday. Declining car and gasoline costs canceled most of the sharp increase in food prices, it said. The advance represented a 2.1 percent annual rate of inflation at the wholesale level. Also, the nation's factory production expanded a strong 1.5 percent in September, Federal Reserve economists said.