German Production Prices Going Up

Production prices in Germany rose at the fastest rate for more than three years in September, propelled by surging energy and steel prices, the federal statistics office Destatis revealed Tuesday. The German producer price index (PPI), which measures the price of goods at the factory gate and is a key yardstick of pipeline inflation, rose by 2.3 percent on a 12-month basis in September, the strongest annual increase since August 2001, Destatis said in a statement. The index had already risen by 2.2 percent in August and by 1.9 percent in July. "As in previous months, the development is attributable primarily to the rise in oil prices and the increase in steel prices observed since the beginning of the year," the statisticians said. (AFP)