German producer price index rises year-on-year in December to highest level in four years

German producer price index rises in December. On a year-on-year basis, the index of producer prices for industrial products grew 1 percent, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). This was the highest positive annual pace of change since January 2013, when the index had risen 1.5 percent. In November, the producer price index had grown 0.1 percent year-on-year. The December annual figure was in line consensus expectations of 1 percent rise.

On a sequential basis, the overall index was up 0.4 percent in the month, as compared with November’s month-on-month rise of 0.3 percent and October’s rise of 0.7 percent.

Non-durable consumer goods prices in December were up 2.1 percent year-on-year, whereas the prices of intermediate goods and prices of durable consumer goods each were up 1.1 percent. Also, prices of capital goods and energy prices were up 0.6 percent and 0.2 percent respectively. Excluding energy, the overall producer price index was up 1.2 percent year-on-year and 0.3 percent sequentially.

For 2016 as a whole, producer prices for industrial productions dropped 1.7 percent year-on-year, according to Destatis. In 2015, the index of producer prices had dropped 1.8 percent.