Inflationary pressures remained tightly under wraps in the first month of 2015, a residue of the big slump in oil prices since last summer, MarketWatch reported.

The producer price index, which is considered a good proxy for wholesale costs, fell a record 0.8 percent in January on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said today. It was the third decline in a row and the fifth in the past six months.

Overall energy prices tumbled 10.3 percent in January, the biggest drop since 2008, led by a 24 percent plunge in the price of gasoline.   

As a result, the producer price index has experienced zero change in the past 12 months, whereas just a month earlier, producer prices had been increasing at a 1.1 percent annual pace.

The subdued pace of inflation gives the Federal Reserve more leeway on when to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006, MarketWatch said. Most economists believe the central bank will boost a key short-term interest rate, now near zero, in June or shortly thereafter.