BERLIN: German producer prices rose at a more rapid clip in September than in August, with inflation rising across all of the country’s main industrial groups, in the latest confirmation that deflation risks have all but evaporated. The producer price index rose 3.1 per cent year-on-year in September, from 2.6 per cent in the previously month. That was slightly hotter than the 3 per cent economists had forecast.
Inflation in the eurozone’s powerhouse economy has picked up steam markedly this year (see chart above), helped by better than expected growth across the bloc along with a rebound in energy prices. The figures have been seen as positive developments by European Central Bank policymakers who for years following the eurozone debt crisis worried about deflation, or falling prices — a situation that is extremely difficult to reverse once it has began. Germany’s federal statistics office reported a broad year-on-year increase in wholesale prices in September.
