Germany's wholesale prices fell for the fifth month in a row in August, driven by a slump in prices of mineral oil products, preliminary figures from the statistical office Destatis showed Tuesday.
The wholesale price index, or WPI, declined 2.7 percent year-on-year after a 2.8 percent fall in the previous month. The index has been decreasing since April.
Compared to the previous month, the WPI rose 0.2 percent, reversing a 0.2 percent fall in July. Economists had forecast a 0.1 percent drop.
The main factor behind the latest year-on-year fall was a 15.8 percent decline in the wholesale prices of mineral oil products, which was mainly due to a base effect originating from the high level of prices in the same period of the previous year, Destatis said.
On a month-on-month basis, however, prices of mineral oil products surged 6.9 percent in August.
