Inflation, as measured by the producer price index, ticked up to 1.6% for the year ending in August, the second such month of increases.

The new numbers were released on Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Most economists had anticipated an increase after wholesale inflation previously bottomed out in June, although last month's jump was a bit more than expected.

The increase is one indication that some of the country’s inflationary pressures are holding up to some degree against the Federal Reserve’s campaign to slow economywide spending by hiking interest rates.

On a month-to-month basis, the wholesale price index increased by 0.7%.

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Friday morning’s report came a day after the consumer price index data for August showed overall annual inflation rose to a 3.7% rate for the year ending in July, the second consecutive increase after a full straight year of declines.

Too-high inflation has hurt households over the past two years and undercut support for President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, a dynamic that has borne out in polling that consistently shows Biden getting low marks on his handling of the economy.

The major factor driving up last month’s headline numbers was gasoline prices. Gas prices rose more than 10% from just July to August, accounting for more than half of the headline increase in prices in the CPI.

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Still, as inflation has generally trended down over the past year, Biden and the White House have sought to rebrand the president’s economic agenda as a success, touting bright spots in the economy such as the strong labor market and positive GDP growth as “Bidenomics” in action.

The Fed will meet later this month to make its next decision on interest rates. An overwhelming majority of investors think that central bank officials will hold off on hiking again this time around, although some investors and economists expect another potential rate revision at some point this year should signs still point to too-high underlying inflation.