German producer prices post biggest decline on record
2023.09.20 02:48
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A steel worker of ThyssenKrupp walks in front of a blast furnace at a ThyssenKrupp steel factory in Duisburg, western Germany, November 14, 2022. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
BERLIN (Reuters) -German producer prices posted their biggest year-on-year decline in August since data collection began in 1949, spurring hopes for further easing of inflation in Europe’s largest economy.
Producer prices decreased by 12.6% on the year, the federal statistics office reported on Wednesday.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 12.6% decline.
As a result of the war in Ukraine, the increase in producer prices in August 2022 was 45.8% on the year, the highest ever registered since records began. Therefore, the comparison between August 2022 and August 2023 showed a strong decline.
Germany’s producer prices index, considered a key inflation indicator, has been easing steadily since September of last year.
In July, German producer prices fell by 6.0%, posting their first decline in over two-and-a-half years as energy price pressures cooled.
Compared with July, producer prices were up 0.3% in August, data from the statistics office showed.
