For such products – including footwear, apparel and equipment – about 53 percent of parents with kids age 18 plan to spend the same amount, as 28 percent anticipate spending more.

The study, conducted by SportsOneSource, found that parents with a household income under $40,000 were most likely to spend “a lot less” this year. But it also found this group to be most likely to spend “a lot more” than any other household income group, with the exception of parents making over $125,000 a year.

As observed by the National Retail Federation, consumers traditionally begin back-to-school shopping three weeks to one month before school starts. In 2007, the retail holiday raked in $18.4 billion, thanks mainly to sales of electronics, footwear and apparel.

For some, this decrease could be interpreted as a preventive measure against inflation, as Bloomberg reported this morning. Wholesale prices last declined in December 2008, by 1.8 percent.

Measured by the producer price index, wholesale prices serve as one of three gauges of inflation calculated monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Rapidly declining energy prices led the overall decrease, as the costs of both gasoline and home heating oil each declined by 13 percent.

On the other hand, the prices of finished goods sans food and energy had increased by 0.1 percent, following a 0.4 percent increase in February.

Prices of women, girls and infants’ apparel fell slightly in March, after a 1.5 percent increase the month before. Prices of toys and consumer plastic products fell less than they had in February, while prices of sporting and athletic goods rose by 0.6 percent after a 3.5 percent decline.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the rise yesterday through its regular tracking of wholesale prices of crude, intermediate and finished goods, cumulatively referred to as the producer price index.

Finance and economics journalist James Picerno called the price increase paired with the 22 percent rise in new housing starts “more than just a dead cat bounce.”

“Is it safe to declare the deflation risk over? No, not yet, but it’s not too soon to start thinking about the light at the end of the tunnel, dim though it’s likely for the time being,” he wrote in his blog, The Capital Spectator.

Prices of finished consumer goods sans food and energy rose by 0.4 percent, following the 0.3 percent increase observed in January.

Within this category, prices of both household appliances and women’s, girls’ and infants’ apparel rose by 1.5 percent after smaller increases during the previous month. Meanwhile, prices of sporting goods and toys experienced the steepest declines, of 1.7 and 3.5 percent respectively.