Corrects headline and intro
Germany's producer prices posted its slowest annual growth in two years in April, Destatis reported Friday.
Producer prices registered an annual growth of 4.1 percent in April after rising 6.7 percent in March. This was the weakest increase since April 2021, when prices gained 5.2 percent. Economists had forecast a 4.0 percent rise.
On a monthly basis, producer prices marked the first increase since September 2022. Producer prices climbed 0.3 percent, reversing the 1.4 percent decrease a month ago and in contrast to the expected fall of 0.5 percent.
The annual increase in producer prices was driven by a 6.8 percent rise in capital goods. Prices of non-durable consumer goods gained 11.4 percent and that of durable consumer goods moved up 8.8 percent. At the same time, energy prices grew only 2.8 percent.
Excluding energy, producer prices were up 0.1 percent on month and advanced 4.8 percent from the previous year in April.
