Press release No. 219 of 19 June 2020
Producer prices of industrial products, May 2020
-0.4% on the previous month
-2.2% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – In May 2020 the index of producer prices for industrial products decreased by 2.2% compared with the corresponding month of the preceding year. In April the annual rate of change all over had been –1.9%, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with the preceding month April the overall index fell by 0.4% in May 2020 (-0.7% in April).
Energy prices as a whole decreased by 7.9% (-1.2% compared to April 2020). On an annual basis, prices of petroleum products were down 27.5%. They fell by 3.1% compared to April 2020. A great part of this decrease presumably is due to the fallen decline in demand during the Corona pandemic. Prices of natural gas (distribution) decreased by 13.4%.
The overall index disregarding energy was 0.3% down on May 2019 and fell by 0.2% compared to April 2020.
Prices of intermediate goods decreased by 2.6% compared to May 2019 (-0.1% on April 2020). Prices decreased especially regarding basic iron, steel and ferro-alloys (-9.6%) as well as paper and paperboard (-5.8%) and basic chemicals (-8.2%). Prices of cereal flour were down 3.5%. By contrast, prices of precious metals increased by 25.6% compared to May 2019. Prices of articles of concrete, cement and plaster rose by 3.7%.
Prices of non-durable consumer goods increased by 1.3% compared to May 2019 (-1.1% on April 2020). Food prices were up 1.5% on May 2019. The price of sugar increased by 17.5%. Prices of meat and poultry meat products rose by 14.1%. By contrast, prices of swine fresh or chilled fell by 7.2% (-12.5% on April 2020). In addition, butter prices fell by 25.2% compared to May 2019 and prices for processed and preserved potatoes were 8.6 % down on May 2019.
| Year / month | 2015 = 100 | Change in % compared with | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| corresponding month of preceding year | preceding month | |||
| 2019 | May | 105.3 | 1.9 | -0.1 |
| June | 104.9 | 1.2 | -0.4 | |
| July | 105.0 | 1.1 | 0.1 | |
| August | 104.5 | 0.3 | -0.5 | |
| September | 104.6 | -0.1 | 0.1 | |
| October | 104.4 | -0.6 | -0.2 | |
| November | 104.4 | -0.7 | 0.0 | |
| December | 104.5 | -0.2 | 0.1 | |
2020 | January | 105.3 | 0.2 | 0.8 |
| February | 104.9 | -0.1 | -0.4 | |
| March | 104.1 | -0.8 | -0.8 | |
| April | 103.4 | -1.9 | -0.7 | |
| May | 103.0 | -2.2 | -0.4 | |
| thereof: | ||||
| Intermediate goods | 102.9 | -2.6 | -0.1 | |
| Capital goods | 105.7 | 1.1 | 0.0 | |
| Durable consumer goods | 106.9 | 1.5 | 0.0 | |
| Non-durable consumer goods | 107.6 | 1.3 | -1.1 | |
| Energy | 96.7 | -7.9 | -1.2 | |
More detailed data and long time series are available in table Producer price indices for industrial products (61241-0006) in the GENESIS-Online database.
