• Prior -0.2%

The breakdown shows that producer prices in Switzerland fell by 0.5% on the month in February with import prices increasing slightly by 0.2%. At the balance, this still points to a 0.3% monthly drop. On an annual basis, producer and import prices are seen down 2.7% relative to the same month a year ago.

Looking at the breakdown, the main drag in producer prices last month were for pharmaceutical products and for chemical products. That is slightly offset by a bit of an increase in prices for petroleum products and electricity. Of note, the core inflation reading for this index is seen down 0.5% on the month and down 1.8% year-on-year.

As for import prices, the increase was a result of price jumps in petroleum products as well as petroleum and natural gas mostly. The core inflation reading for this index also shows a slight drop of 0.1% with the year-on-year estimate being down 2.5%.

Overall, the core inflation reading* for the producer and index price is down 0.4% on the month in February and down 2.1% compared to the same month last year.

That points to negative contributions, which won’t be welcome by the SNB as they continue to have to deal with deflationary pressures alongside a stronger currency in recent weeks amid the US-Iran conflict.

*excluding raw materials and any product groups close to raw materials whose prices are subject to high volatility (in particular agricultural products, meat, petroleum products, metals, gas

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.