Germany’s December annual import price index rises to highest level since February 2012

Germany’s import price index rose in December, coming in above consensus expectations. On a year-on-year basis, the index of import prices rose 3.5 percent in December, as compared with November’s rise of 0.3 percent, noted Destatis. Market expectations were for the prices to rise 2.7 percent year-on-year. The December’s annual price index rise was the highest since February 2012, when it rose 3.5 percent. In the months of October and November of 2016, the annual rates of change were -0.6 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.

On a sequential basis, the import price index rose 1.9 percent in December, as compared with the consensus expectations of 1.3 percent and acceleration from 0.7 percent sequential rise in November.

On an annual average basis, the index of import prices dropped 3.1 percent in the year, as compared with the drop of 2.6 percent recorded in 2015. This was the highest price fall since 2009. Stripping crude oil and mineral oil products, the import prices index was on an annual average 1.9 percent below the level of a year earlier. It rose 1.7 percent year-on-year in December and was up 0.9 percent sequentially.

Meanwhile the export price index dropped by an average of 0.9 percent year-on-year in the whole of 2016. This was the biggest price decline since 2009. In December, the export price index rose 1.1 percent year-on-year, whereas it was up 0.4 percent in sequential terms.