Germany’s producer prices declined at a faster-than-expected pace in March, figures from Destatis showed Monday.
The producer price index fell 1.7 percent year-over-year in March, surpassing economists’ expectations for a 1.6 percent decrease.
In February, prices had fallen 2.1 percent.Producer prices have been falling since August 2013.
Prices in the energy sector dipped 4.7 percent annually in March, dragged down by the cheaper prices of petroleum products, which plunged by 13.1 percent.
Prices in the consumer goods sector also dropped in March. It decreased 1.3 percent from the previous year, while capital goods sector registered an increase of 0.7 percent.
On a monthly basis, producer prices edged up 0.1 percent in March, the same rate of increase as in February. Economists had forecast the prices to increase by 0.2 percent. It was the second consecutive monthly climb.
Excluding energy sector, producer prices were 0.5 percent lower than in March 2014, while it rose by 0.1 percent from the previous month.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com