31.   The department reported Wednesday that drug prices at the wholesale level rose sharply last month.

32.   The most striking effect of the arrests in Colombia have so far been at the wholesale level of the drug trade, officials said.

33.   The oil company price reductions will basically be implemented at the wholesale level and it will be up to individual dealers to set pump prices.

34.   Thus prices for gasoline at the wholesale level began to rise sharply in some regions as early as mid-February even before crude oil prices began to recover.

35.   U.S. retail sales rose at a slower rate in August and inflation at the wholesale level remained practically invisible, a combination investors judged to be just right.

36.   Wall Street analysts and economists expected the Fed to stand pat, even though inflation at the consumer and wholesale levels showed a small upward blip in April.

37.   With food and energy prices dropping, the report eased inflation fears that had been raised by an unexpectedly large jump at the wholesale level.

38.   Yesterday, the Labor Department reported that prices at the wholesale level fell in February for the first time in eight months as gasoline and food costs declined.

39.   And prices edged lower on the wholesale level.

40.   But analysts noted that December figures were revised upward and also cautioned that higher prices at earlier stages of production below the wholesale level are worrisome.