Manufacturing output prices again below last year's level

According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), output prices of products manufactured in the Netherlands were 4.1 percent lower in January 2016 than in January 2015. In December 2015 year-on-year prices were 5 percent down. Over the past months prices have fallen less rapidly. This month too, the price of crude oil and prices of petroleum derivatives plummeted.

Lower oil prices and output prices

Since 2013, year-on-year oil prices have fallen almost continuously. In January, the barrel price of North Sea Brent oil was more than 29 euros, i.e. 31 percent below the price level recorded in January 2015. In December, the barrel price was nearly 36 euros, i.e. 30 percent below the level recorded one year previously.

Year-on-year prices of petroleum derivatives slumped by 25.2 percent in January 2016 and by more than 24 percent in December. Evidently, prices of petroleum derivatives are directly affected by crude oil price developments. If oil prices are not taken into account, manufacturing output prices were 1.5 percent lower.

Prices of chemical products were 5.4 percent lower than twelve months previously. Prices of food products were almost 2 percent below the level of one year previously. Prices of basic metal products also fell, by more than 5 percent compared to January 2015. Crude metal too was cheaper in January than one year previously.

Year-on-year prices of rubber and plastic products, machinery and the automotive industry, on the other hand, rose marginally. The average price of metal products hardly changed.

Manufactured products cheaper in January than in December

Prices of manufactured products decreased on a month-to-month basis. In January 2016, output prices of manufactured products fell on average by 2 percent relative to December 2015. With 1.9 percent, prices on the domestic market fell less substantially than on the foreign market (- 2.1 percent). In January, oil prices again fell considerably compared to December.