German Inflation Falls to 2.3%; Italian GDP Growth Slows

Arthi Gupta
10 Jun, 2011
New York City

French manufacturing output improved in April but industrial production struggled. German wholesale price inflation eased for a second consecutive month in May. The GDP in Italy expanded at a slower pace of 1%. Swedish industrial output fell in April.

[R]1:00 PM Frankfurt – French manufacturing output improved in April but industrial production struggled. German wholesale price inflation eased for a second consecutive month in May. The GDP in Italy expanded at a slower pace of 1%. Swedish industrial output fell in April.[/R]

French Manufacturing Improves

French manufacturing output grew 0.2% on a monthly basis in April, reversing March fall of 1.1%, data from the statistics office Insee showed today.

Industrial production declined 0.3% on a monthly basis in April, following a 1.1% drop in March.

On an annual comparison, manufacturing and industrial production grew 5.3% and 3.9% respectively.

Swedish Production Falls

Swedish industrial production declined unexpectedly in April, reflecting decreases in most industry sub-sectors, Statistics Sweden said on Friday.

Overall output was down by seasonally adjusted 0.7% in April from 0.9% in March.

However, industrial production logged an annual growth of 12%, after rising by revised 14.9% in March. The development was the strongest in the electrical equipment industry with an increase of 57.6%.

Spanish Property Transactions Drop

Spanish property transactions continued to decrease in April, the statistics office INE said on Friday.

The number of property transfers recorded in the land registries totalled 124,721 in April, 16.4% lower than in the same period of last year. On a month basis, the decline was 26%.

German Inflation Slows, WPI Eases

Germany''s inflation slowed in May as estimated, final data from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Friday.

The consumer price index for Germany rose 2.3% annually in May, down slightly from 2.4% in April.

Wholesale price inflation in Germany slowed for a second consecutive month in May, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed.

Wholesale inflation eased to 8.9% in May from 9.2% in April. On a monthly basis, prices remained unchanged following a 0.2% rise in April.

Wholesale prices of fruits and vegetables rose 6.7% annually in May.

Romania Inflation Increases

Romania''s consumer price index increased 8.41% annually in May compared to the 8.3% inflation reported in April, data released by the National Institute of Statistics showed.

Prices of food products climbed 11.23% in May, while prices of non-food products rose 7.7% annually.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices grew 0.21% in May.

Danish Inflation Climbs

Danish consumer price inflation rose 3.1% in May from 2.9% in April, Statistics Denmark said. On a monthly basis, consumer prices advanced 0.2% in May.

Finnish Retail Sales Soars

Finland''s retail sales value increased 7.9% annually in April, faster than March increase of 4.2%, data released by Statistics Finland showed.

In volume terms, retail sales rose 5.5% in May as against the 1.7% rise in March.

Italy GDP Expands

The Italian gross domestic product rose 0.1% sequentially in the first quarter, at the same pace as in the fourth quarter, latest data from the statistics office Istat showed, confirming the preliminary estimate.

Annually, GDP rose 1% in the first quarter, slower than the 1.5% recorded in the fourth quarter.