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Among foods, vegetable prices, which had jumped in August, dropped 17.9 percent. Prices for carbonated soft drinks, beef and poultry also fell. The Fed begins a two-day meeting Tuesday. It is expected to continue its $85 billion-a-month in bond purchases, which are intended to keep long-term interest rates low and encourage more borrowing and spending. A slowdown in hiring, along with the 16-day partial government shutdown, has made it more likely that the Fed will maintain its pace of bond buying into early 2014. The report on wholesale prices was delayed by the shutdown. It had been scheduled to be released on Oct. 11. The government will report Wednesday on consumer prices, a report that had originally been scheduled for release on Oct. 16. Consumer prices in August rose just 0.1 percent and in the 12 months through August consumer inflation was up 1.5 percent.
[Associated
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