Data published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showed that in March, producer price growth slowed down again (for the 6th month in a row), recording the slowest rate of increase since May 2021.
According to the report, the producer price index increased by 7.5% per annum after a rise by 15.8% per annum in February. Economists had expected an increase by 9.8% per annum. On a monthly basis, producer prices fell by 2.6%, accelerating compared to February (-0.3%). Consensus estimates suggested a 0.5% drop.
Destatis said that the year-on-year growth was caused by the prices of energy, non-durable consumer goods, intermediate goods, durable consumer goods and capital goods. Also for the decrease of producer prices on a monthly basis the development of energy prices is the main reason.
Energy prices as a whole increased by 6.8% per annum. Natural gas prices (distribution) were up 19.1% from March 2022. Electricity prices across all customer groups left unchanged compared to March 2022. Prices of mineral oil products were down 18.4% from March 2022 and decreased by 2.3% from February.
The producer price index excluding energy increased by 7.9% per annum and by 0.2% on a monthly basis.