Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), reported that producer prices fell by 0.8% in December, accelerating compared to November (-0.3%) and confirming economists' forecasts. This was the largest decline since May 2023. In annual terms, producer prices fell by 10.6% after declining by 8.8% in November. Consensus estimates suggested a 10.5% drop. Meanwhile, among the EU countries, producer prices decreased by 0.9% compared to November and fell by 10.0% per annum. The annual average industrial producer prices for the year 2023, compared with 2022, decreased by 3.2% in the eurozone and by 2.1% in the EU.
The data showed that on a monthly basis, producer prices in the eurozone decreased by 2.3% for energy and by 0.3% for intermediate goods, while prices remained stable for both capital goods and durable consumer goods, and prices increased by 0.1% for non-durable consumer goods. Meanwhile, excluding energy, producer prices decreased by 0.1%.
Among the EU countries, producer prices decreased by 2.4% for energy, by 0.4% for intermediate goods and by 0.1% for durable consumer goods, while prices remained stable for capital goods, and prices increased by 0.1% for non-durable consumer goods. Producer prices excluding energy decreased by 0.2%.
Eurostat said that the largest monthly decreases in industrial producer prices were recorded in Ireland (-12.0%), the Netherlands (-1.8%) and Estonia (-1.4%), while increases were observed in Greece (+1.0%), Belgium (+0.5%), Cyprus and Luxembourg (both +0.3%) as well as in France (+0.1%).