Manufacturers’ prices up

Dutch manufacturers put up their selling prices in August. On average prices were 0.6 percent higher than in July. Prices of goods sold in the Netherlands were 0.3 percent higher, those sold abroad yielded 0.8 percent more.

Results of the business sentiment survey published last week, show that the manufacturing industry expects hardly any changes in selling prices in the period September to November.

Prices trends for raw materials and products in balance
Manufacturers were themselves confronted by higher cost prices in August. The average price level of raw materials and semi-manufactured products was 0.6 percent higher in August than in July.

This puts the price increase in August in balance with the average price increase for sold products.

The same is true for the price developments in the first eight months of this year. The average price increase for the period January to August was 0.4 percent a month for both intermediate consumption and sold products. In 2001 the selling prices rose by more (+1.3 percent) than intermediate consumption (+0.1 percent).

Upward trend for selling prices and intermediate consumption
Following the nearly uninterrupted series of increases in selling prices since January 2002, the level in August was slightly higher than in August last year (+0.3 percent). In spite of the increases, prices of intermediate consumption are still below the level of twelve months ago (-1.9 percent).

(source: Statistics Netherlands)

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