Malta one of only three EU-27 nations to record annual growth in industrial producer prices

On Wednesday, the European Commission’s statistics arm Eurostat released data showing Malta is leading in yearly industrial producer price growth.

Increasing by 1.8 per cent in November 2020 when compared with November 2019, Malta is amongst the only three nations to record an increase.

Hungary and Slovenia also experienced an increase at 1.1 per cent each.

No other EU nation saw growth, with Lithuanian industrial producer prices falling the furthest (-7.3 per cent), followed by Greece and Cyprus.

In the EU, energy sector industrial producer prices were worst hit, decreasing by 7.5 per cent, with intermediate goods and non-durable consumer goods falling by 0.6 and 0.1 per cent respectively.

Durable consumer goods and capital goods rose by 1.2 per cent and 0.8 per cent. Eurostat states that excluding energy industrial producer prices remained stable.

In comparison with October, EU industrial producer prices increased by 0.1 percent excluding the energy sector, with Denmark and France recording the highest increase (both 7.1 per cent) and Ireland the greatest decrease (1.4 per cent).

The year-on-year increase in industrial production prices seems to be good news for Malta, as it suggests that industrial production is continuing to experience demand despite the spectre of COVID that has decimated prices in other EU countries.