There may be some alleviation coming in terms of inflation. In an April 6th statistical update, Eurostat reports a slowdown in producer-price inflation in the EU:
In February 2022, industrial producer prices rose by 1.1% in both the euro area and the EU, compared with January 2022, according to estimates from Eurostat … In January, prices increased by 5.1% in the euro area and 5.0% in the EU.
If the 1.1% month-to-month rate would remain for a whole year, it would translate into a 14% rate of annual producer-price inflation. This is notably lower than the inflation from February 2021 to February 2022, when producer prices increased by 31.4% in the eurozone and 31.1% in the EU as a whole.
February month-to-month inflation in producer prices varied across the EU, from 13.6% in Slovakia, 5.7% in Slovenia, 4.8% in Greece, and 2.5% in Luxembourg to deflation in Ireland (-8.1%), Finland (-0.5%), Latvia (-0.3%), and Bulgaria (-0.1%).
On an annual basis, three countries exceeded 50% producer-price inflation: Ireland (63.4%), Romania (57.7%), and Denmark (53.8%). At 6.2%, Malta had the lowest inflation rate by a large margin.
Broken down by industrial sector, monthly inflation was led by intermediate goods (1.6%), followed by energy (1.3%), and consumer perishables (0.8%). Measured year to year, the energy sector led by 87.2%.
On an annual basis, three countries exceeded 50% producer-price inflation: Ireland (63.4%), Romania (57.7%), and Denmark (53.8%). At 6.2%, Malta had the lowest inflation rate by a large margin.
