Higher oil price put producer price indices up

According to Statistics Finland, producer price indices rose by between 0.2 and 0.8 per cent from February to March. Import prices went up most, by 0.8 per cent. This was mainly due to an increase in the world market price of crude oil, but there were also increases in base metal prices.

In March, too, import prices were nearly 5 per cent lower than a year before. The prices of electrical equipment, energy products, raw materials and output commodities decreased from last year's March. However, the rate at which import prices fell slowed down, since in January it was still 6.7 per cent.

Export prices went up by 0.2 per cent from February to March. This was due to higher prices of oil products and machinery and equipment. From last year's March, export prices fell by 7.1 per cent. The fall was mainly attributable to lower prices of electrical equipment, base metals, pulp, paper and board.

Producer prices for manufactured goods, or producer prices for goods intended for the domestic market, went up by 0.2 per cent from February to March due to higher oil product prices. From last year's March, producer prices for manufactured goods went down by 4 per cent, as the prices of base metals, electricity, pulp and oil products fell.

The HWWA Index, used to measure the dollar-based world market prices of raw materials, rose by 9 per cent from February to March. The increase was due to a 22 per cent rise in the price of crude oil. In the year to March, the HWWA Index went down by 8 per cent. The rate of decrease slowed down clearly in March, since in February the HWWA Index was falling at an annual rate of 18 per cent.

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Producer price indices 1995=100 and their monthly and annual changes in March 1999, %
Indices	Point Figure 3/1999	Change 2/99 - 3/99, %	Change 3/98 - 3/99, %
Producer price index for manufactured goods	96.0	0.2	-4.0
Export price index	92.8	0.2	-7.1
Import price index	94.2	0.8	-4.8
Basic price index for domestic supply	97.1	0.4	-3.1
Wholesale price index	97.5	0.4	-2.9

Source: Producer Price Indices 1999, March. Statistics Finland