Slovakia’s industrial producer prices fell on annual basis for the twelfth straight month in February 2014 declining by 3.4% and deepening from a 3% fall in January, data from the statistics office showed.

Industrial producer prices on the domestic market decreased by 3.7% y/y in February after falling 2.5% y/y the month before. The steepest drop was recorded in coke and refined petroleum products, where prices fell 8.6% y/y, following a 7.1% annual drop in January.

Export producer prices fell 3.1% in February after decreasing 3.4% in the previous month.

Producer prices are a key preliminary indicator for the dynamics in consumer prices, so the data suggests that consumer inflation would remain muted in the near term. In February, Slovakia’s CPI fell 0.1% y/y, after staying flat the month before.

On a monthly basis, producer prices fell by 1% in February after decreasing 0.5% in January. On the domestic market, prices were 1.7% lower than in January when they dropped by 0.5% m/m. Export prices moved down by 0.4% m/m in February, following a 0.6% decrease a month earlier.

The annual decline in agricultural producer prices deepened to 11.4% y/y in February from 10.4% y/y the month before. Crop prices went down by 23.5% y/y, compared to a 22.1% y/y decline in the previous month. Prices of animal products fell 0.7% y/y last month, following a 0.4% y/y decline in January.

Prices of construction works rose 0.9% y/y in February, while prices of construction materials and components dipped 2.9% y/y.