Data provided by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showed that in April, the producer price index rose by 0.3%, recording the first increase since September 2022. Economists had expected producer prices to decline by 0.5% after falling by 1.4% in March (revised from -2.6%). In annual terms, producer price growth slowed to 4.1% from 6.7% in March (revised from +7.5%). The April increase was the weakest since April 2021. Consensus estimates suggested an increase in prices by 4% per annum.
Destatis said that the annual increase in producer prices was due to the prices of capital goods (+6.8% per annum). In particular, machinery became significantly more expensive at +8.6 % compared to the same month last year. Vehicles and parts also increased in price by 5.6% compared to April 2022. Prices for non-durable consumer goods increased by 11.4% per annum, while prices for durable consumer goods increased by 8.8% per annum. Energy prices were only 2.8 % higher than in the same month last year. Compared to March 2023, they rose by 1.0%. This is the first increase since September 2022. Natural gas in distribution cost 10.8% more than in April 2022 across all customer groups. Compared to March 2023, natural gas prices increased by 1.4%. Electricity prices fell by 2.9% across all customer groups compared to April 2022, but increased by 1.5% compared to March 2023.
The data also showed that the producer price index excluding energy increased by 4.8% per annum and by 0.1% on a monthly basis.