BERLIN: German producer prices rose at a faster clip than economists forecast last month, pushed higher by a rise in energy inflation.
Producer prices for industrial products rose 2.6 per cent year-over-year in August, up from the 2.3 per cent recorded in the previous month, according to Destatis. Economists in a FactSet survey had forecast a pick-up to 2.4 per cent. Price indices for all of the major industrial groups climbed, with non-durable consumer goods up 3.6 per cent and intermediate good rising 3.3 per cent. The “main driver” was a 2.7 per cent rise in energy prices, noted Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “The increase in energy inflation is consistent with what we are seeing in the [consumer-level inflation] data and base effects suggest that it will fall in the coming months,” he said.