Germany's wholesale prices continued to fall in June

As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the selling prices in wholesale trade fell by 3.3% in June 2020 in comparison with the corresponding month of the preceding year. In May 2020 and in April 2020 the annual rates of change had been -4.3% and -3.5%, respectively. From May 2020 to June 2020 the index rose by 0.6%.

In June 2020, lower prices in the wholesale trade of petroleum products (-23.4%) had the biggest impact on the overall development compared to the same month of the previous year. Compared to May 2020, however, mineral oil products were sold again at a significantly higher price (+8.9 %), after prices had fallen by around 30 percent since February 2020 due to the crisis.

There were also sharp price decreases compared to the previous year in the wholesale trade of waste materials and residual materials (-13.3 %), including iron and steel scrap (-16.3 %). Prices were also well below the previous year's level in the wholesale trade of live animals (-6.9 %), cereals, raw tobacco, seeds and animal feed (-4.0 %) and data processing equipment, peripheral equipment and Software (-3.5%). By contrast, wholesale tobacco prices were higher than in June 2019 (+4.3 %).