Analysis

Industrial Production Prices in New Increase

electricity

Industrial production prices rose by 2.9 per cent year-on-year in the euro area compared with 2016, and by 3.3 per cent in the EU28. The figures are Eurostat estimates, for the year to September 30. The latest monthly figures also show impressive growth, with both the EU19 and EU28 growing by 0.6 per cent in September.

Amongst EU28 countries, the 3.3 per cent price increase is mainly due to rises in the energy sector (6 per cent), intermediate goods (3.5 per cent), non-durable consumer goods (2.7 per cent), capital goods (1.1 per cent) and durable consumer goods (1 per cent). According to Eurostat, industrial producer prices rose in all member states, the largest increase being recorded in Belgium (7 per cent).

Bulgaria (6.0 per cent) and Estonia (5.5 per cent) both rank in the top 5, overtaking the United Kingdom (5.4 per cent).

“Compared to September 2016, the index has been affected most by the increase in prices in the manufacture of fuel oils, milk products and in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply”, comments Jelena Jurkova, a leading statistician at the Economic and Environmental Statistics Department at Statistics Estonia.

It is electricity which is also behind Bulgaria’s growth. As reported by the country’s National Statistical Office, prices of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply all rose (10.3 per cent), as did prices in the mining and quarrying industry (9.9 per cent) and in the manufacturing sector (4 per cent).

The manufacturing industry is growing especially in the basic metals and wood products as well as computer, electronic and optical products.