- IHS Global Insight
According to the report of the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Destatis, import prices in the Euro zone's biggest economy have jumped noticeably in February 2015, calculating on month-to-month basis. The indicator, which measures prices of imported goods purchased on a domestic market, gained 1.4% last month from the previous one. It followed four consecutive months of losses for import prices and particularly a 0.8% drop in January. Economists, from their side, expected German import prices to advance just 0.5% in February; therefore, the result has considerably exceeded predictions. However, on the annual basis the import price index is still recording negative changes, which amounted to 3% in the previous month, compared with February 2014, even though it still means a major improvement from a 4.4% plunge in January of this year.
At the same time, retail sales in Italy, the third largest economy of the monetary bloc, rose slightly in January by 0.1% month-on-month. The result was in line with estimates and came after an upwardly revised 0.1% decrease in December. Contributing a large share to the economy, retail sales are playing important role in Italy's recovery which has been weak since financial crisis began in 2008. Last year, Italian GDP shrank 0.5%, and completely no growth was registered even during last quarter of the year.
© Dukascopy Bank SA