Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), reported that producer prices fell by 1.0% in February after declining by 0.9% in January. This was the largest decline since May 2023. Economists had expected a decline of 0.7%. In annual terms, producer prices fell by 8.3%, accelerating compared to February (-8%, revised from -8.6%). Consensus estimates suggested a 8.6% drop. Meanwhile, among the EU countries, producer prices decreased by 0.9% compared to January and by 8.1% per annum.
The data showed that on a monthly basis, producer prices in the eurozone remained stable for intermediate goods and decreased by 3.5% for energy. Price increases were recorded for capital goods (+0,2%), durable consumer goods (+0,3%) and non-durable consumer goods (+0,2%). Meanwhile, excluding energy, producer prices rose by 0.1%.
Among the EU countries, producer prices remained stable for intermediate goods and decreased by 3.1% for energy, while prices increased for capital goods (+0,3%), durable consumer goods (+0,3%) and non-durable consumer goods (+0.2%). Producer prices excluding energy increased by 0.1%.
Eurostat said that the largest monthly decreases in industrial producer prices were recorded in Estonia (-7.2%), Slovakia (-5.6%) and Ireland (-4.2%). The highest increases were observed in Belgium (+1.4%), Luxembourg (+0.8%) and Hungary (+0.7%).