Germany's import prices continued to decline in March but the pace of decrease slowed for the second month, data from Destatis showed Monday.
Import prices fell by less-than-expected 1.4 percent in March from last year, following a 3 percent drop in February. Prices were expected to fall 2 percent. Nonetheless, the import price index has been falling since January 2013.
Excluding crude oil and mineral oil products, import prices gained 1 percent on a monthly basis taking the annual growth to 2.3 percent.
Month-on-month, import prices rose 1 percent after increasing 1.4 percent in February. This was the second consecutive rise in import prices and exceeded a 0.4 percent rise forecast by economists.
At the same time, the annual increase in export prices doubled to 1.4 percent from 0.7 percent in February. Similarly, monthly growth accelerated to 0.6 percent from 0.3 percent.
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