German Producer Price Inflation Accelerates In January

Economists had expected 0.3 percent inflation. Compared to the previous month, producer prices rose 1.4 percent in January after a 0.8 percent increase in December. Economists had forecast an increase of 0.8 percent. Intermediate goods prices rose at a faster pace of 2.4 percent annually, driven by double-digit increases in prices of secondary raw material and animal feed. The rate of growth in metal prices accelerated to 4.5 percent.

Prices of fertilizers and paper products decreased. Prices of durable consumer goods increased 1.5 percent and those of capital goods grew 0.7 percent. Non-durable consumer goods prices decreased 1.8 percent and food prices fell 3.3 percent.

Energy prices rose 0.7 percent annually and 2.7 percent from the previous month, which was partly due to the national CO2-pricing that has been introduced in January 2021.

Excluding energy, producer prices rose 0.9 percent from a year ago.