The breakdown shows that producer prices in Switzerland fell by 0.5% on the month in February with import prices increasing slightly by 0.2%. At the balance, this still points to a 0.3% monthly drop. On an annual basis, producer and import prices are seen down 2.7% relative to the same month a year ago.
Looking at the breakdown, the main drag in producer prices last month were for pharmaceutical products and for chemical products. That is slightly offset by a bit of an increase in prices for petroleum products and electricity. Of note, the core inflation reading for this index is seen down 0.5% on the month and down 1.8% year-on-year.
As for import prices, the increase was a result of price jumps in petroleum products as well as petroleum and natural gas mostly. The core inflation reading for this index also shows a slight drop of 0.1% with the year-on-year estimate being down 2.5%.
Overall, the core inflation reading* for the producer and index price is down 0.4% on the month in February and down 2.1% compared to the same month last year.
That points to negative contributions, which won’t be welcome by the SNB as they continue to have to deal with deflationary pressures alongside a stronger currency in recent weeks amid the US-Iran conflict.
*excluding raw materials and any product groups close to raw materials whose prices are subject to high volatility (in particular agricultural
products, meat, petroleum products, metals, gas
