According to the report from Eurostat, the growth of eurozone producer prices accelerated sharply in January, contrary to economists' expectations. The producer price index increased by 5.2% after an increase by 3% in December (revised from +2.9%). Consensus estimates suggested a slowdown in price growth to 2.3%. In annual terms, the growth of the producer price index accelerated to 30.6% compared to 26.3% in December (revised from +26.2%). Economists had expected producer prices to increase by 27%. In the European Union, producer prices rose by 4.9% on a monthly basis and by 30.3% per annum.
The data also showed that the increase in eurozone producer prices compared to December was due to an increase in the cost of products in the energy sector (+11.6%), intermediate goods (+2.7%), durable consumer goods (+2.2%), non-durable consumer goods (+1.6%) and capital goods (+1.5%). Excluding energy, producer prices rose by 2.2% on a monthly basis.
Meanwhile, the faster growth in prices in annual terms was associated with an increase in the cost of energy (+85.6%), intermediate goods (+20.2%), durable consumer goods (+6.7%), non-durable consumer goods (+6.0%) and capital goods (+5.7%). Excluding energy, producer prices increased by 11.7% per annum.
As for the EU countries, producer prices rose in all Member States, with the highest annual increases being registered in Ireland (+60.5%), Romania (+57.3%) and Denmark (+54.0%).