German import price index falls at slower pace in December, export price index rises 0.4 pct

The German import price index dropped in December. On a year-on-year basis, the import price index fell 0.7 percent, showed the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The pace of fall has slowed down from the prior months. In the months of November and October the year-on-year rates were -2.1 percent and -3.5 percent, respectively. On a month-on-month basis, the index rose 0.2 percent in December. In the whole of 2019, the import price index was 1 percent lower than the average index of 2018.

Excluding crude oil and mineral oil products, the import price index dropped 1.9 percent year-on-year. On a sequential basis, the index fell 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, for the whole of 2019, the index was 0.8 percent under the level of a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the export price index rose 0.4 percent on a year-on-year basis. This is an improvement when compared with the annual rates of change of +0.1 percent and -0.2 percent recorded in November and October 2019, respectively. On a sequential basis, the index rose 0.1 percent. On an annual average it rose 0.5 percent year-on-year in the whole of 2019.