Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), reported that producer prices fell by 1.0% in April after declining by 0.5% in March (revised from -0.4%). Economists had expected a decrease of 0.5%. In annual terms, producer prices fell by 5.7%, slowing compared to March (-7.8%). Consensus estimates suggested a 5.1% drop. Meanwhile, among the EU countries, producer prices decreased by 0.7% compared to March and by 5.5% per annum.
The data showed that on a monthly basis, producer prices in the eurozone increased for intermediate goods (+0,3%), capital goods (+0,2%), durable consumer goods (+0,2%) and non-durable consumer goods (+0.1%). A decrease in prices was recorded only for energy (-3.6%). Meanwhile, excluding energy, producer prices rose by 0.2%.
Among the EU countries, producer prices rose for intermediate goods (+0.2%), capital goods (+0.1%), durable consumer goods (+0.2%) and non-durable consumer goods (+0.2%). Meanwhile, energy prices fell by 2.5%. Producer prices excluding energy increased by 0.2%.
Eurostat said that the largest monthly decreases in industrial producer prices were recorded in France (-3.6%), Croatia (-1.9%) and Greece (-1.8%). The highest increases were observed in Denmark (+2.8%), Ireland (+0.8%) and Finland (+0.3%).