According to Eurostat (1), Industrial Producer Prices in February 2015 rose 0.5% from January in the Eurozone, and by 0.6% in the EU as a whole. This is the first monthly rise since September. But year on year, they fell by 2.8% in the Eurozone and 3.4% for the EU – the largest recent year on year falls bar January.
What is striking is that the monthly increase is due mainly to a small nudge-up of energy prices – whilst total industry prices excluding energy continued to fall both monthly (-0.1% in Eurozone and EU) and year on year, -0.7% for the Eurozone, -0.8% for the whole EU. As PRIME has been arguing, deflationary pressures are not simply down to the big drop in energy prices over the last 9 months.
The index of UK Industrial Producer Prices over the last 3 years makes interesting reading (2010 = 100):
- Feb 2012 112.8
- Feb 2013 114.2
- Feb 2014 112.5
- Feb 2015 103.3
(1) Eurostat: “The index of producer prices shows (in the national currency of the country concerned) changes in the ex-works sale prices of all products sold on the domestic market, excluding imports. Euro area and EU indices refer to overall weighted price changes. The figures are not working day or seasonally adjusted.”
