Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), reported that producer prices fell by 0.9% in January after a similar decline in December (revised from -0.8%). This was the largest decline since May 2023. Economists had expected a decline of only 0.1%. In annual terms, producer prices fell by 8.6% after declining by 10.7% in December (revised from -10.6%). Consensus estimates suggested a 8.1% drop. Meanwhile, among the EU countries, producer prices decreased by 0.9% compared to December and by 8.4% per annum.
The data showed that on a monthly basis, producer prices in the eurozone decreased by 2.9% for energy, by 0.2% for intermediate goods and by 0.2% for durable consumer goods. Price increases were recorded for capital goods (+0.6%) and non-durable consumer goods (+0.3%). Meanwhile, excluding energy, producer prices rose by 0.2%.
Among the EU countries, producer prices decreased by 2.5% for energy, by 0.1% for intermediate goods and by 0.1% for durable consumer goods, while prices increased for capital goods (+0.5%) and non-durable consumer goods (+0.2%). Producer prices excluding energy increased by 0.2%.
Eurostat said that the largest monthly decreases in industrial producer prices were recorded in Slovakia (-14.3%), Poland (-3.0%) and Austria (-2.2%). The highest increases were observed in Estonia (+5.3%), Ireland (+4.0%) and Czechia (+2.4%).