BERLIN (Reuters) – German producer prices posted their biggest year-on-year decline in September since data collection began in 1949, spurring hopes for further easing of inflation in Europe’s largest economy.
Producer prices fell slightly more than expected in September, decreasing by 14.7% on the year, the federal statistics office reported on Friday.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 14.2% decline.
As a result of the war in Ukraine, the increase in producer prices in September 2022 was 45.8% on the year, the highest registered since records began. Therefore, the comparison between September 2022 and September 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.
(Writing by Friederike Heine, editing by Christina Fincher)
