Luxembourg, 09/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Euro-zone and EU15 industrial producer price index rose by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively in February 2001 compared with the previous month estimates Eurostat. In February, the non-durable consumer goods index rose by 0.5% and 0.4% respectively. Durable consumer goods prices rose by 0.3% in February in the Euro-zone and 0.2% in the EU15. For intermediate goods, prices were unchanged in the Euro-zone and rose by 0.1% in the EU15 after a fall of 0.8% and 0.7% respectively in January. The price index rose above the EU-average in Luxembourg, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and France, while the indices fell in Portugal, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In annual terms, producer prices rose by 4.4% in the Euro-zone and 3.9% in the EU15 compared with February 2000. Since October 2000, the annual increase of industrial producer prices regularly slowed down, following the trend of intermediate goods prices. Compared with February 2000, the highest rates were recorded in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Portugal and the lowest in Spain, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom.