Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), reported that industrial producer prices fell by 2.8% in January after rising by 1.1% in December. Economists had expected a 0.3% decline. In annual terms, producer price growth slowed to 15.0% from 24.5% in December (revised from +24.6%). It was the lowest producer inflation since August 2021. Consensus estimates suggested an increase by 17.7% per annum. Meanwhile, among the EU countries, producer prices fell by 2.2% compared to December and rose by 16.4% per annum.
The data showed that on a monthly basis, producer prices in the eurozone decreased by 9.4% in the energy sector, while prices increased by 0.8% for intermediate goods, by 1.2% for capital goods, by 1.5% for non-durable consumer goods and by 1.6% for durable consumer goods. Meanwhile, excluding energy, producer prices increased by 1.1%.
Among the EU countries, producer prices decreased by 7.9% in the energy sector, while prices increased by 0.8% for intermediate goods, by 1.2% for capital goods, by 1.4% for non-durable consumer goods and by 1.5% for durable consumer goods. Producer prices excluding energy increased by 1.1%.
Eurostat reported the largest monthly decreases in industrial producer prices were recorded in Ireland ( 25.2%), Sweden (-8.0%) and Latvia (-5.8%), while the highest increases were observed in Slovakia (+9.0%), Czechia and Hungary (both +5.8%) and Austria (+4.9%).