Latvia Producer Prices April 2008

I don't quite know how I missed this one, but Latvijas Statistika published the April producer price results last week. Compared to March 2008, producer prices in Latvian industry in April 2008 increased by 3.3%, according to the data of Central Statistical Bureau. Over the year (compared to April 2007) producer prices grew by 12.1%.



Compared to March, the overall level of producer prices in April 2008 was mostly influenced by the increase of the tariffs of electricity, gas, steam and hot water supply (growth of 2.5 percentage points). The price increase in the manufacture of food products and beverages, in the manufacture of non-metallic mineral products and in the manufacture and recycling of basic metals increased the overall price level by 0.2 percentage points in each economic activity. However,the overall level of producer prices was lowered by the price decrease in the manufacture of wood and wood products (except furniture) – by 0.2 percentage points.

Perhaps more to the point, as we can see in the above chart there is now a disconnect between producer prices in the export (tradeable sector) where prices rises are - not surprisingly - moderating towards zero, and those in the domestic sector, which even seem to be accelerating again at this point.