Retail Sales, Producer Prices Up 0.3% : Economy: Shoppers and inflation kept a low profile in September. Bush Administration officials hailed the news, but most private-sector economists were unimpressed.

Two new government reports Wednesday showed that the U.S. economy remained stuck in neutral last month with a lackluster increase in retail sales and a modest rise in wholesale prices.

Commerce Secretary Barbara Franklin said the two reports showed that the White House “has set the foundations for increases in jobs and a rising standard of living,” though private economists said they showed a barely growing economy.

The Labor Department said producer prices rose by 0.3% last month, higher than the 0.1% increase recorded in August but not enough to spark concern about inflation.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that sales at retail stores rose 0.3% in September, as car dealers and building materials companies profited from rebuilding after Hurricane Andrew sliced through southern Florida and Louisiana in August.

Even an upward revision of the August sales figures that showed they were flat rather than down 0.5%, as reported last month, did not shake analysts’ views that the economy is going nowhere. They said voters are not likely to receive any last-minute good economic news between now and Election Day.

Such an environment normally would give the Federal Reserve room to cut interest rates further. While there were high expectations last week that the Fed would move for the 25th time since 1989 to cut rates, analysts said the chances of that occurring were growing slimmer, at least until after Election Day.

For his part, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday that “we don’t know” whether further rate cuts will be needed.

“Anyone who gives a definitive answer . . . is reaching beyond the evidence,” he said during a news conference.

The positive side of the generally sluggish economy was modest inflation, which potentially leaves the Federal Reserve Board more room for stimulative interest rate cuts.

The widely watched “core rate” of price increases in the Labor Department’s report, which excludes volatile food and energy products, went up just 0.2% in September after a 0.1% drop in August.

“Inflation is not a problem,” declared analysts at Cyrus J. Lawrence Inc. in New York.

“The economy is just bumping along the bottom,” said Norman Robertson, an economist at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh. “This is not a recovery in any meaningful sense of the word.”

Analysts said the retail sales report and the low inflation figure were depicting an economy with extremely weak demand that is keeping a lid on prices.

New-car sales rose 0.4% after a drop in August of 0.6%.

Retail Sales

Seasonally adjusted, billions of dollars

Sept., ‘92: $161.1

Aug., ‘92: $160.7

Sept., ‘91: $152.7

Source: Commerce Department

Producer Price Index

For finished goods

Seasonally adjusted change from prior month

Sept., ‘92: +0.03

Aug., ‘92: +0.1

Sept., ‘91: +0.2

Source: Labor Dept.