Provisional data indicate that the industrial producer price index in March went up by 0.4 per cent when compared to the previous month.
In March, the producer price index for total industry went up by 0.4 per cent. This resulted in an increase of 0.7 per cent in intermediate goods and a rise of 0.3 per cent in the consumer goods sector. During this period, energy and capital goods prices remained stable.
Prices for the domestic market edged up by 0.1 per cent. The intermediate and consumer goods sectors increased by 0.5 and 0.2 per cent respectively, while no price changes were recorded in energy and in capital goods.
Overall, producer prices in the non-domestic market went up by 0.7 per cent, in view of an increase of 0.8 and 0.4 per cent in the intermediate and consumer goods sectors respectively. Prices for capital goods registered no change on the previous month.
Producer prices in respect of goods destined for the euro area increased by 0.7 per cent, resulting from a rise of 0.8 per cent in prices in intermediate goods.
Prices for goods destined for the non-euro area were up by 0.6 per cent. This was due to an increase of 0.1 per cent in intermediate goods and a 2.3 per cent rise in prices for consumer goods. During this period, prices for capital goods remained stable.
Year-on-year, producer prices for total industry declined by 5.3 per cent. During this period, producer prices for intermediate goods dropped by 10.1 per cent. On the other hand, prices for capital and consumer goods went up by 0.6 and 1.8 per cent respectively. Energy prices remained unchanged.
Producer prices for the domestic market went up by 0.5 per cent. Prices for intermediate, capital and consumer goods rose by 0.2, 4.2 and 2.5 per cent respectively.
The period under review revealed that producer prices for goods destined for the non-domestic market decreased by 8.9 per cent, on account of a drop in prices in the euro area of 10.1 per cent. This was mitigated by an increase of 2.0 per cent in prices for goods destined for the non-euro area.