Producer price indices - January 2020

Month-on-month comparison
Agricultural producer prices rose by 2.3%. Prices of potatoes (+6.0%), poultry (+1.3%), pigs for slaughter and oleaginous crops (+1.1% both) grew. On the increase were also prices
of cereals and milk (+0.6% both). Prices of eggs (-3.9%) and fruit (-12.3%) went down.

Prices of industrial producers were higher by 1.3%. This was the fastest rate of growth since January 2011. Prices rose particularly in ‘electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning’ (+6.3%), thereof ‘electricity, transmission and distribution services’ (+6.9%). Prices were higher in ‘food products, beverages, tobacco’ (+1.4%), thereof ‘beverages’ (+2.6%) and ‘preserved meat and meat products’ (+1.0%). On the increase were also prices in ‘furniture, other manufactured products’ (+1.4%) and ‘water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation services’ (+5.4%). Lower were prices in ‘basic metals, fabricated metal products’ (-0.7%), ‘mining and quarrying’ (-1.4%) and ‘wood, wood products, paper, printing’ (-0.7%).

According to an estimate, construction work prices were higher by 0.4% and prices of construction material and products input remained stable.

Service producer prices in the business sphere fell by 0.6%. Prices for ‘advertising and market research services’ (-18.9%) and ‘architectural and engineering services’ (-0.6%) decreased. On the increase were prices of ‘warehousing and support services for transportation’ (+4.9%), ‘employment services’ (+3.5%), ‘management consulting services’ (+2.9%), ‘postal and courier services’ (+1.3%) and ‘security and investigation services’ (+0.8%). Prices of ‘rental and leasing services’ and ‘computer programming, consultancy and related services’ were both higher by 0.6%. Service producer prices in the business sphere, excluding advertising services rose by 0.8%.

Year-on-year comparison
Agricultural producer prices fell by 2.9% (in December 2019 they decreased by 3.7%). Prices in the crop production dropped by 9.3%. On the decrease were prices of vegetables by 38.7%, cereals by 11.3% and oleaginous crops by 4.1%. Prices of fruit (+44.3%) and potatoes (+3.4%) grew. Prices of animal products rose by 5.5%. Prices of pigs for slaughter (+38.8%), poultry (+3.2%) and eggs (+2.3%) went up. Prices for cattle for slaughter (-2.6%) and milk (-2.2%) went down. 

Prices of industrial producers were higher by 2.4% (+2.1% in December 2019). Prices increased in ‘electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning’ (+9.3%), thereof ‘electricity, transmission and distribution services’ (+11.2%). Prices grew in ‘food products, beverages, tobacco’ (+5.1%), thereof ‘preserved meat and meat products’ (+15.1%). Prices rose also in ‘coke, refined petroleum products’. Prices increased in ‘furniture, other manufactured products’ (+4.6%) and ‘water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation services’ (+5.4%).

Lower were prices in ‘basic metals, fabricated metal products’ and ‘wood, wood products, paper, printing’ (-3.2% both). On the decrease were also prices in ‘transport equipment’ (-1.1%) and ‘mining and quarrying’ (-2.1%).

Among the main industrial groupings, prices of ‘energy’ (+7.8%) were higher particularly.

According to an estimate, construction work prices rose by 4.2% (in December 2019 they increased by 4.3% after specification) and prices for construction material and products input grew by 0.6% (in December 2019 they increased by 1.2%).

Service producer prices in the business sphere were higher by 2.4% (the same way as in December 2019). Prices for ‘employment services’ (+8.3%), ‘warehousing and support services for transportation’ (+5.7%), ‘rental and leasing services’ (+4.2%), ‘postal and courier services’ (+4.0%) and ‘computer programming, consultancy and related services’ (+3.4%) went up. Furthermore, prices were higher for ‘information services’ (+3.1%) and ‘land transport services’ (+2.2%). Prices of ‘management consulting services’ were lower by 0.2%. Service producer prices in the business sphere, excluding advertising services, grew by 2.5% (in December 2019 they increased by 2.2%).

Industrial producer prices in the EU – December 2019 (preliminary data)
According to the Eurostat News Releases, industrial producer prices remained stable in December (+0.2% in November) in EU27, month-on-month. The highest increases were recorded in the Netherlands and Romania (+0.5% both). Prices were higher in the Czech Republic and Germany (+0.1% both), stayed unchanged in Austria and Poland and were lower in Slovakia (-0.1%). Prices decreased the most in Estonia (-1.3%).

Industrial producer prices decreased in December by 0.4% (-1.1% in November) in EU27, year-on-year. Prices decreased the most in Italy (-3.1%). Prices were lower in Austria (-0.5%) and increased in the Czech Republic (+2.1%), Slovakia (+1.9%), Poland (+1.6%) and Germany (+0.1%). The highest increase was recorded in Greece (+4.7%).