Euro Zone Producer Prices to Fall for Ninth Month in September

The Euro Zone Producer Price Index is set to drop -7.7% in the year to September, reversing some of the previous month’s upswing from the record low at -8.4% recorded in July. The release will mark the ninth consecutive month that wholesale prices has contracted, hinting at continued downward pressure on overall inflation as shops pass on lower costs on to consumers. An early estimate showed that CPI declined for the fifth consecutive month in October. It seems increasingly inevitable that continued losses will bleed into future inflation expectations, encouraging consumers and businesses to wait for the best possible bargain and delay spending and investment, threatening the fragile economic recovery and hinting that the European Central Bank may find itself with no choice but to (at the very least) delay raising interest rates for longer than is currently projected.