Basque Country's industrial prices rose by 0.1% in March 2008

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Industrial prices increased by 0.1% in the A.C. of the Basque Country in March 2008, according to EUSTAT data. With these data, the inter-annual rate for March, which indicates the fluctuation in industrial prices over the last twelve months, showed growth to be 4.1%.

A more detailed sectorial analysis shows that the most inflationary branches in March 2008, with regard to the previous month were “Food Industry” (0.7%), “Chemical Industry” (0.7%), ”Metallurgy and Metal Articles” (0.6%), and “Electrical Equipment” (0.6%), among others. By contrast, the sectors whose prices fell most were “Energy Electricity, Gas and Water” (-2.3%), “Non-metal industry” (-0.8%) and “Paper, Printing and Graphic Arts” (-0.6%).

Over the inter-annual period March 2008 on March 2007, the highest growth in prices was registered by the branches of “Electricity, Gas and Water" (14.4%) “Metal and Non-Metal Minerals” (11.9%), “Oil Refining” (10.2%), “Food Industry” (7.2%) and Other Manufacturers” (7.0%) . However, the lowest growth in prices was recorded in the following sectors: “Metallurgy and Metal Articles" (1.2%), Paper, Printing and Graphic Arts" (1.8%), "Machinery” (2.0%), “Electrical Equipment” (2.1%) and "Transport Material" (2.1%).

Following the classification of Goods by economic destination, the prices in the large sectorial groups all continued to rise in March, except for Energy, where prices fell by 1.0%. The prices of Intermediary Goods were up by 0.3%, Capital Goods rose by 0.2% and Consumer Goods overall increased by 0.6%, as the result of the increase in Durable Consumer Goods (0.5%) and Non-Durable Consumer Goods (0.6%).

The price evolution of these large groups of goods reveals differences over the inter-annual period. Energy prices increased by 12.1%, Capital Goods by 2.9%, Intermediate Goods were up 1.6% and Consumer Goods registered a 5.4% increase. Among the latter, the prices of Non-Durable Consumer Goods rose 6.6% while Durable Consumer Goods were up by 2.5%.