Press release No. 239 of 20 May 2021
Producer prices of industrial products (domestic market), April 2021
+0.8% on the previous month
+5.2% on the same month a year earlier
WIESBADEN – In April 2021, the index of producer prices for industrial products increased by 5.2% compared with April 2020. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office this was the highest increase compared to the corresponding month of the preceding year since August 2011 (+5.2%), when prices rose strongly after the end of the finance crisis. Compared with the preceding month March 2021 the overall index increased by 0.8% in April 2021.
Mainly responsible for the increase of producer prices compared to April 2020 were the prices of intermediate products and of energy.
Significant price increase on intermediate goods, especially regarding secondary raw materials, wood and metals
Prices of intermediate goods increased by 8.2% compared to April 2020. This was the highest price increase compared to the previous year since February 2011 (+8.9%). Compared to March 2021 these prices were up 1.8 %. Compared to April 2020 intermediate goods’ prices increased especially regarding metallic secondary raw material (+62.7%), sawn and planed wood (+27.1%) and metals (+17.3%). Prices of basic iron, steel and ferro-alloys increased by 23.5%, prices of non-ferrous metals were up 21.7%. The main reasons for the rise in steel prices are likely to be increasing demand in Germany and abroad, problems in the supply of raw materials and sharp price increases for iron ore. Only few prices of intermediate goods fell compared to April 2020, two of them being electronic integrated circuits (-13.9%) and wood in chips and particles (-23.2%).
Increase in electricity prices causes rising energy prices
Energy prices as a whole increased by 10.6% compared to April 2020 and by 0.6 compared to March 2021. The price increase from April 2020 to April 2021 is mainly due to the increase of electricity prices (+10.7%), furthermore to the high increase of prices for mineral oil products (+30.9%), which is mainly caused by a base effect resulting from the sharp drop in prices in spring 2020 in the course of the pandemic. National CO2-pricing that has been introduced in January 2021 on several energy products also had a great impact on the price increase of energy. For example prices of natural gas sold to industrial consumers with an annual consumption of 116 300 MWh increased by 15.5% disregarding CO2-pricing, including CO2-pricing they rose by 27.1%.
The overall index disregarding energy was 3.6% up on April 2020.
Prices of durable consumer goods increased by 1.6% compared to April 2020 (+0.4% compared to March 2021), capital goods, such as machines and vehicles, by 1.0% (+0.3% compared to March 2021).
Decreased prices for pork led to drop in prices of non-durable consumer goods
Prices of non-durable consumer goods decreased by 0.6% compared to April 2020 but increased by 0.6% compared to March 2021. Food prices decreased from April 2020 to April 2021 by 1.3%, caused by price decreases of pork until February 2021. Though pork prices increased from February until April 2021 by 19.3% they still were 14.3% down compared to April 2020. By contrast, prices of butter increased by 10.1%, prices of sugar were up 13.3% and prices of vegetable crude oils 29.6%.
| Year / month | 2015 = 100 | Change in % compared with | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| corresponding month of preceding year | preceding month | |||
| 2020 | April | 103.4 | -1.9 | -0.7 |
| May | 103.0 | -2.2 | -0.4 | |
| June | 103.0 | -1.8 | 0.0 | |
| July | 103.2 | -1.7 | 0.2 | |
| August | 103.2 | -1.2 | 0.0 | |
| September | 103.6 | -1.0 | 0.4 | |
| October | 103.7 | -0.7 | 0.1 | |
| November | 103.9 | -0.5 | 0.2 | |
| December | 104.7 | 0.2 | 0.8 | |
| 2021 | January | 106.2 | 0.9 | 1.4 |
| February | 106.9 | 1.9 | 0.7 | |
| March | 107.9 | 3.7 | 0.9 | |
| April | 108.8 | 5.2 | 0.8 | |
| thereof: | ||||
| Intermediate goods | 111.4 | 8.2 | 1.8 | |
| Capital goods | 106.8 | 1.0 | 0.3 | |
| Durable consumer goods | 108.6 | 1.6 | 0.4 | |
| Non-durable consumer goods | 108.1 | -0.6 | 0.6 | |
| Energy | 108.3 | 10.6 | 0.6 | |
Long time series on the overall index are available in table Producer price indices for industrial products (61241-0002), more detailed data in table Producer price indices for industrial products (61241-0006) in the GENESIS-Online database
