According to a report released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, in February this year in the European Union member states (EU-27) industrial producer prices increased 0.8 percent as compared to January levels, while they rose by 4.3 percent as compared with February 2011.
In February 2012 compared with the previous month, prices in overall industry excluding the energy sector remained almost stable with an increase of just 0.3 percent in the EU-27, while prices in the energy sector rose by 1.5 percent. Meanwhile, in February in the EU-27, prices of intermediate goods rose by 0.5 percent, while prices of durable consumer goods and prices of capital goods increased respectively by 0.3 percent and by 0.2 percent, both compared to the previous month.
Among the member states for which data are available, the lowest month-on-month growth in the overall index were recorded in the Czech Republic, Latvia and Malta (all +0.1 percent). Prices remained stable in Poland, while decreases were recorded in Cyprus (-0.3 percent) and Slovenia (-0.1 percent). Meanwhile, the largest increases were recorded in Denmark (+3.6 percent), in Belgium (+1.9 percent) and in Finland (+1.7 percent).
In February 2012 as compared to February 2011, prices in overall industry excluding the energy sector increased by two percent year on year in the EU-27, while prices in the energy sector gained 9.7 percent, intermediate goods rose by 1.4 percent, durable consumer goods rose by 2.4 percent and capital goods gained 1.5 percent.
Among member states for which data are available, the largest year-on-year increases in the overall index were observed in Latvia (+10.2 percent), in Cyprus (+8.6 percent) and in Lithuania (+8.3 percent), and the smallest in Sweden (+0.2 percent), in Malta (+0.6 percent) and in Slovenia (+0.7 percent).