Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), reported that industrial producer prices fell by 3.2% in April after declining by 1.3% in March (revised from -1.6%). Economists had expected a 3.1% decline. In annual terms, producer price growth slowed to 1.0% from 5.5% in March (revised from +5.9%). The rate of inflation has been easing for eight consecutive months and reached its lowest level since January 2021. Consensus estimates suggested growth of 1.4%. Meanwhile, among the EU countries, producer prices fell by 2.9% compared to March and rose by 2.3% per annum.
The data showed that on a monthly basis, producer prices in the eurozone decreased by 10.1% in the energy sector and by 0.6% for intermediate goods. Meanwhile, price increases were recorded for capital goods (+0.4%), for non-durable consumer goods (+0.3%) and for durable consumer goods (+0.2%). Meanwhile, excluding energy, producer prices decreased by 0.1%.
Among the EU countries, producer prices decreased by 8.9% in the energy sector and by 0.6% for intermediate goods. Prices increased by 0.1% for durable consumer goods and by 0.4% for both capital goods and non-durable consumer goods. Producer prices excluding energy decreased by 0.2%.
Eurostat reported the largest monthly decreases in industrial producer prices were recorded in Belgium (-9.1%), Italy (-6.5%) and Ireland (-6.3%), while increases were observed in Germany (+0.3%), Denmark (+0.2%) as well as Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia (all +0.1%).