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Consumer prices fell 0.7% in December led by declining energy costs and slowing the declines of previous months, the Labor Department said Friday.

Economists had forecast a 0.9% decline in the consumer price index, the government’s main gauge of inflation, Bloomberg reported. Prices had declined 1.7% in November.

The so-called CPI excluding food and energy was unchanged from November.

For the full year, the CPI was 0.1%, the smallest annual gain in 50 years. The core rate for 2008 gained 1.8%, the smallest since 2003.

The CPI is the government’s broadest gauge of costs for goods and services. Almost 60% of the CPI covers prices consumers pay for services.

If consumer prices are climbing, it could reflect an increase in demand for consumer goods, which increases the demand for trucking services.