EU IPPI, steepest fall in last decade

The industrial prices excluding the energy sector have registered an average drop of 1 per cent in the Euro Area and an average growth of 0.1 per cent in EU-27 in February 2009 compared to the level registered in February 2008, the communique published on Monday by the EU's Statistics Office informs. Thus, the prices of industrial products freshly off the assembly line have dropped by 1.8 per cent in the Euro Area compared to the level registered during the same period last year, that drop being the steepest from 1999 until now. In February the industrial production prices have registered the steepest fall in the last decade, signaling the heightening of the deflationary risk in the region.

Romania ranks third in the EU when it comes to the IPPI indicator, registering a growth of 5.8 per cent compared to the same period last year, in the context of an average drop of 0.8 per cent within the European bloc.

Thus, the strongest IPPI growth was registered in Malta (39.4 per cent), Hungary (6.2 per cent) and Romania, while the states that registered the steepest drops were Greece (-5.3 per cent), France and the Netherlands (-4.5 per cent each), according to the Eurostat data. The price index within the energy sector dropped by 3.3 per cent in the EU and by 4.5 per cent in the Euro Area. According to the data published yesterday by the National Statistics Institute (INS), the overall industrial production prices registered in February saw a growth of 0.6 per cent compared to the level registered in January and a 6.2 per cent growth registered in the same month the year before.

The steepest dropin retail trade

In February Romania registered the steepest drop in the volume of retail trade in the European Union (EU), namely 7.9 per cent compared to the level registered the month before, Eurostat informs. According to Eurostat, the European bloc registered a drop of 1.2 per cent.

In January the retail trade volume grew by 13.3 per cent compared to the level registered in December. The volume of retail trade in Romania in February dropped by 8.8 per cent compared to the level registered in the same month last year, the drop being the sixth largest in the EU. Growth was registered only in Poland (2.4 per cent) and Belgium (0.6 per cent).

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