Producer prices in Romania have fallen for the seventh consecutive month in January, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. The producer price index saw a decrease of 6.0 percent year-on-year in January, a slightly steeper decline than December's 5.4 percent.
In January, prices within the domestic market fell by 8.0 percent annually, while prices in foreign markets dropped by a marginal 0.1 percent. A breakdown of the main industrial groups revealed that energy goods observed the highest decrease, with prices falling 15.9 percent annually. This was followed by a 6.3 percent fall in intermediate goods, while capital goods' prices increased by 6.5 percent.
On a month-to-month basis, producer prices in January edged down by 0.1 percent in comparison to December.
Separate data highlighted an increase in the unemployment rate, which rose slightly to 5.7 percent in January, up from December's 5.6 percent. This unemployment rate echoes that of the same month last year. January also saw an increase in the number of unemployed persons, with the total reaching 472,000, up from 458,000 in December.