Inflation Rate Cools; April Prices Rise .2% : Economy: The first moderate report since severe cold sent costs spiraling shows the smallest increase since September.

Falling costs for vegetables, fuel oil and women’s clothing helped hold consumer price inflation to 0.2% in April, the government said today.

It was the smallest increase since September and the first moderate report after a severe cold snap sent prices spiraling 1.1% in January. The Labor Department’s consumer price index had risen 0.5% in both February and March.

“We’re correcting from the unusually high prices of the winter,” said economist Donald Ratajczak of Georgia State University. “You could argue the worst of inflation is behind us, certainly for this year.”

Even with the April improvement, inflation for the first four months of the year was running at a 6.8% seasonally adjusted annual rate, up from 4.6% for all of 1989.

In April, food and beverage prices fell 0.2%, the first decline since July, 1987. Non-alcoholic beverages and dairy products were down, while prices rose for cereal and bakery products, beef, pork, sweets and oils.

Fresh vegetable prices, which rose 29.2% in the first two months of the year, fell 15.5% last month, bringing the decline for April and March to 19.8%.

Energy prices dropped 0.4% after declining the two previous months. Gasoline prices, with the start of the warm weather driving season, climbed 0.3% and electricity costs were up 0.2%. However, fuel oil fell 0.6%, the third consecutive decline, while natural gas dropped 3%.

Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, prices rose a moderate 0.2% after rising a worrisome 0.7% in March. Economists say this “core” number is often a better indicator of underlying inflationary pressures in the economy.

New automobile prices fell 0.2% in April. Clothing price inflation moderated from a month earlier. Apparel prices overall were unchanged after rising 1.7% in March.

Women’s and girls’ clothing costs fell 0.5%. However, men’s and boys’ clothing costs were up 0.4% while infants’ and toddlers’ costs rose 1.9%.

Health care costs rose a steep 0.8%, the third increase in a row at that level. They were up 8.9% from a year ago.

So far this year, wholesale prices as measured by the government’s producer price index have recovered from the winter weather shocks much more swiftly than consumer prices. As a result, wholesale prices for the first four months of the year have risen at a more moderate annual rate of 4.2%.

Analysts attribute the slower recovery of consumer prices to the heavy influence of the service sector, which accounts for slightly more than 50% of the consumer index and none of the wholesale index.

The economic slowdown of recent months has slowed demand for goods, pulling down wholesale costs, but until very recently it hasn’t affected employment.

Economist Robert Brusca of Nikko Securities Co. International Inc. said sluggishness in the goods-producing sector of the economy may finally be spreading to services.

“I think we’re breaking the upward trend of inflation that was introduced earlier in the year,” he said.