Prices of industrial products in the Eurozone fell by 7.6% y/y in July

Producer prices of industrial products in the Eurozone fell by 0.5% in July 2023 compared to the previous month and by 7.6% year-on-year. Reuters informs about it with the reference to Eurostat data. This indicator is falling for the seventh month in a row.

The drop in producer prices in the Eurozone in July compared to June was due to a decrease in prices for intermediate goods (-1.2%), such as steel, wood, etc., as well as a decrease in the cost of energy by 0.9%.

In the EU, this indicator fell by 0.6% m/m and 6.6% annually.

Producer prices are an early indicator of trends in consumer inflation, which the European Central Bank (ECB) aims to maintain at 2.0% in the medium term.

In July 2023, according to Eurostat, the largest decrease in prices of producers of industrial products in July 2023 compared to the same period in 2022 was recorded in Ireland (-39.5%), Bulgaria (-18.1%) and Italy (- 13.8%). The highest growth was observed in Hungary (+18.8%), Slovakia (+17.8%) and Slovenia (+6.8%), according to Eurostat.

As GMK Center reported earlier, inflation in the Eurozone in August 2023 increased by 5.3% y/y, remaining at the level of July after a three-month slowdown. In June 2023, this indicator was 5.5%, in May – 6.1%, and in April – 7%. Analysts surveyed by Trading Economics expected inflation in the Eurozone to slow to 5.1% in August.