Industrial producer price index down by 1.3%

In August, the producer price index for total industry dropped by 1.3 per cent, from 94.7 to 93.5 points. This was the result of a decline in intermediate goods of 2.4 per cent, according to the National Statistics Office.

The non-domestic sector was characterised by a decrease of 2.2 per cent, with the major contributor being intermediate goods (-2.7 per cent). Furthermore, consumer goods saw a marginal decline of 0.1 per cent.

Producer prices in respect of goods destined for the euro area went down by 2.4 per cent, while prices for goods destined for the non-euro area decreased by 0.5 per cent.

On an annual basis, the producer price index decreased from 98.4 to 93.5 points, or by 5.0 per cent. The downturn resulted from price drops in intermediate goods (-9.4 per cent) and capital goods (-0.7 per cent). On the other hand, consumer goods rose by 0.7 per cent. No price change was registered for energy.

Producer prices for the domestic market edged up by 0.4 per cent, resulting in part from an increase in prices for intermediate and consumer goods of 1.9 and 1.1 per cent respectively; these were mitigated by a decline of 2.5 per cent in capital goods.

Non-domestic prices dropped by 8.7 per cent, as both the eurozone and non-eurozone registered a drop in prices of 9.5 and 2.3 per cent respectively.