Wholesale Inflation Down in November : Economy: The dip in prices was the third in five months. A 7.7% drop in the cost of gasoline offset modest food expenses.

Wholesale prices, held down by a sharp drop in gasoline prices, dipped 0.1% in November for the third decline in five months, the government said today.

The drop in the Labor Department’s producer price index, which measures prices of goods one stop short of the retail level, brought the annual rate of inflation for the first 11 months of the year down to 4.6%, compared with 4% for all of 1988.

Wholesale inflation flared at a 9.4% annual rate through May, but prices since then have barely budged. The decline in November followed a 0.4% gain in October.

Food costs, which shot up 1.4% in October at the fastest pace in 22 months, rose 0.8% last month. However, they declined overall from April through September.

Pork prices jumped 7.1% following a 9.5% rise in October. Dairy prices were up 3.3%.

However, that was partly offset by a 15.1% drop in vegetable costs and a 6.5% decline in fresh fruit prices. Prices for fish, chicken, coffee and rice also fell.

Energy prices declined 3.3%, the sharpest fall since August. A 7.7% drop in gasoline prices more than compensated for a 0.1% rise in natural gas costs and a 0.7% hike in heating oil prices.

The price of goods excluding the volatile food and energy categories--a measure many analysts consider a better gauge of underlying inflationary pressures in the economy--rose a modest 0.2% last month follow by a 0.1% gain in October.

Modest increases for many kinds of consumer goods were partly offset by a 4.8% decline for soaps and detergents and a 0.3% decrease in the passenger car index, which had fallen 1.4% in October.

The inflation news also was favorable for earlier stages in the production process. The price of intermediate goods fell 0.1% in November after no change a month earlier.

Crude-goods prices rose 0.4% after holding steady in October. An example of the three stages would be bread for finished goods, flour for intermediate goods and wheat for crude goods.

“There has been a major deceleration in inflation in almost every measure . . . that looks like it will stay in place in coming months given how weak the economy is,” said Allen Sinai, chief economist of the Boston Co.

In advance of today’s report, many analysts were expecting a modest 0.2% rise in finished goods. The actual 0.1% decline could give a boost to financial markets that are waiting for the next cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve Board.

Inflation is finishing the year quietly largely because of the economic slowdown engineered months earlier by the Fed, analysts say.