The Eurozone’s annual inflation rate rose in December to 2.9% from the 2.4% recorded in the previous month. This figure represents its highest reading since October, according to preliminary estimates managed by the community statistics office, Eurostat.
The rebound in price growth in the euro area was mainly due to the smaller fall in the cost of energy, which fell 6.7% year-on-year compared to the 11.5% drop in November. Likewise, the increase in the price of unprocessed foods in December accelerated to 6.7% year-on-year from the 6.3% rise in November.
In the area of services, prices repeated the 4% year-on-year increase in December, while non-energy industrial goods rose by 2.5%, four tenths less than in November.
Exclusion from energy impact calculation.
By excluding the impact of energy from the calculation, the year-on-year inflation rate in the last month of 2023 was 4%, compared to 4.3% last month, while also leaving out the impact of the price of food, alcohol . and tobacco, the core inflation rate moderated to 3.4% from 3.6% previously.
Among Eurozone countries, the largest year-on-year price increases were seen in Slovakia (6.6%), Austria (5.7%) and Croatia (5.4%), while the smallest cost increase in December corresponded to Belgium and Italy. (0.5% each) and Latvia (0.9%).
Among the large euro economies, in addition to the 0.5% increase in Italy, harmonized inflation stood at 3.3% in Spain and 3.8% in Germany, while in France it rose to 4.1 %. In this way, the differential in unfavorable prices for Spain with respect to the euro zone is reduced to four tenths in December, half that of the previous month.
Eurozone industrial prices fell
The industrial producer price index of the euro zone registered a monthly decline of 0.3% last November, after having increased three tenths the previous month, while in the European Union the data fell by 0.2% , after having risen in the same proportion in October, according to Eurostat data.
In November 2023, compared to the same month in 2022, industrial production prices decreased by 8.8% in the euro area and 8.1% in the EU as a whole. Industrial prices decreased in the eurozone by 0.8% monthly for energy, 0.5% for intermediate goods and 0.1% for both capital goods and durable consumer goods, while prices remained stable for goods. non-durable consumer goods.
In the EU, industrial producer prices decreased by 0.4% monthly for intermediate goods, 0.3% for energy and 0.2% for both capital goods and consumer durables, while that prices remained stable. for non-durable consumer goods.
By eliminating the effect of energy, industrial prices decreased by 0.2% both in the euro zone and in the Twenty-seven as a whole. The largest monthly decreases in industrial prices were recorded in Slovakia (-3%), Portugal (-2.3%) and Spain (2.1%), while the largest increases were observed in Sweden (+4.1% ), France (+2.4%) and Bulgaria (+0.7%).
Comparison with 2022
Compared to November 2022, in the euro zone producer prices decreased by 23.7% for energy and 5.3% for intermediate goods, while they increased by 3.1% for capital goods, a 3.4% for durable consumer goods and 3.6% for non-durable consumer goods.
Across the EU, industrial producer prices decreased by 21.3% for energy and 5.2% for intermediate goods, while increasing by 2.8% for consumer durables, 3% for capital goods and a 3.4. % for non-durable consumer goods.
Likewise, by eliminating energy, industrial prices fell 0.5% in the euro zone and 0.6% among the Twenty-seven. Among EU countries, the largest annual declines in industrial prices were recorded in Belgium (-18.7%), Italy (-16.3%)
and Latvia (-15.3%), while the largest increases were seen in Luxembourg (+20.4%), Slovakia (+10.9%) and Slovenia (+2.9%).
