Brussels, 09/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - During the month of November 2000, the industrial producer price index rose 0.2% in the euro-zone and 0.3% in the EU15 compared to October, according to Eurostat estimates published on Tuesday. The rise in prices is greater than the EU average in the United Kingdom (1%), in Portugal (0.7%), in Sweden (0.5%) and in Italy (0.4%). On the other hand, the prices fell slightly in France, Spain (-0.1% in each country), in Ireland (-0.2%) and in Luxembourg (-0.3%). We recall that the rise in industrial producer prices registered last October (compared to September) were 0.6% for both the euro-zone and for the EU15. The lower rate registered in November compared to the previous months is mainly due to the small rise in the intermediate goods index (0.1% in the euro-zone and 0.5% in the EU15 as opposed to 1.2 and 1.3% in October). The prices of durable consumer goods for the euro-zone and EU15 remained unchanged in November, while the prices of non-durable consumer goods increased by 0.2%. Finally, in terms of annual changes, Eurostat points out that the producer prices increased by 6.3% in the euro-zone and by 5.5% in the EU15, compared to November 1999.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PLENARY SESSION (from 15 to 18 January 2001)