Slovakia’s industrial producer prices moved lower on annual basis for the second straight month in April 2013, falling by 0.5% y/y, following a 0.7% decline in March, data from the statistics office showed. The producer price deflation recorded in March was the first since April 2010.
Industrial producer prices on the domestic market rose 0.9% y/y last month, accelerating marginally from a 0.8% yearly growth in March, while export producer prices fell 1.2% y/y following a 1.5% y/y decline. Producer prices are a key preliminary indicator for the dynamics in consumer price inflation. In April, Slovakia’s headline inflation was 1.7% y/y and 0.0% m/m.
On a monthly basis, producer prices rose 0.1% after staying flat in March. On the domestic market, prices grew 0.2% m/m after a 0.1% fall in the previous month, while export prices increased by 0.1% after remaining unchanged in March.
The annual growth in agricultural producer prices slowed down to 2.8% last month from 5.7% in March, as the growth in crops prices dropped to 17.1% from 23%, while producer prices of animal products fell 2.6% y/y, following a 2.9% y/y decline in March.
Prices of construction works fell by 0.1% y/y in April and prices of construction materials and components declined by 0.2% y/y.
| y/y % change | April-13 | March-13 | Jan-April 2013 | 2012 |
| INDUSTRIAL PRODUCER PRICES (total) | -0.5% | -0.7% | 0.3% | 2.0% |
| INDUSTRIAL PRODUCER PRICES (domestic) | 0.9% | 0.8% | 1.5% | 3.9% |
| Mining and quarrying | 2.1% | 2.9% | 3.0% | 5.1% |
| Manufacturing | 0.7% | 1.4% | 1.4% | 1.3% |
| --food, beverages and tobacco | 2.9% | 3.3% | 3.0% | 1.9% |
| --textiles, apparel, leather and related products | 2.2% | 1.4% | 1.1% | 1.1% |
| --wood and paper products, printing | -0.1% | -0.1% | -0.8% | -3.3% |
| --coke and refined petroleum products | -7.9% | -2.4% | -0.9% | 10.6% |
| --chemicals and chemical products | -2.5% | -1.6% | -1.1% | 2.5% |
| --pharmaceutical products and preparation | 1.9% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 3.6% |
| --rubber, plastics and other non-metallic mineral products | -0.4% | -0.6% | -0.3% | 0.4% |
| --basic and fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment | -2.7% | -1.4% | -2.1% | -1.6% |
| --computer, electronics and optical products | 2.9% | 2.8% | 2.1% | -0.8% |
| --electrical equipment | -0.9% | -1.0% | -0.4% | 0.4% |
| --machinery and equipment | 7.6% | 6.7% | 6.7% | 2.6% |
| --transport equipment | 4.1% | 2.7% | 2.9% | -3.5% |
| --other manufacturing, repair and installation of machinery and equipment | 11.2% | 10.9% | 9.5% | 5.8% |
| Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply | 0.9% | -0.5% | 1.5% | 7.3% |
| Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation | 5.1% | 5.3% | 5.5% | 4.9% |
| INDUSTRIAL PRODUCER PRICES (export) | -1.2% | -1.5% | -0.5% | 0.7% |
| AGRICULTURAL PRODUCER PRICES | 2.8% | 5.7% | 8.6% | 6.9% |
| --Crop products | 17.1% | 23.0% | 25.4% | 9.3% |
| --Animal products | -2.6% | -2.9% | -0.6% | 4.0% |
| CONSTRUCTION WORK PRICES | -0.1% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.6% |
| CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS PRICES | -0.2% | 0.9% | 0.4% | 1.5% |
| Source: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic |
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