Data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed that producer prices fell by 4.5% per annum in April (the sharpest decline since July 2020) after falling by 1.4% per annum in March (-1%).
INE stated that energy cost fell by 20.5% (vs -16.7% in March). Prices for intermediate goods fell by 1.5% after rising by 3.5% in March, while the growth in consumer goods prices slowed to 10.8% from 12.8%. Meanwhile, prices for capital goods increased by 3.6% after rising by 4.2% in March.
The data also showed that excluding energy, producer price growth slowed to 4.2% per annum from 7.3% per annum in March. Companies tend to pass on industrial price rises to customers, ultimately fuelling inflation. Annual consumer inflation in April was 4.1%, down from a peak of 10.8% last summer. Core inflation, which strips out volatile fresh food and energy prices, was at 6.6%.