Producer prices rise 1.8% in March, 2.7% in Q1 - Rosstat
MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) - Industrial producer prices rose 1.8% in March after increasing 2.3% in February and declining 1.0% in January, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.
Producer prices rose 0.5% in December 2009 and dropped 0.5% in November.
Analysts surveyed by Interfax in late March had forecast a 1.2% rise in wholesale prices for that month.
Producer prices were up 2.7% in the first quarter of 2010, and 19.2% year-on-year in March.
Prices in the extractive industries increased 3.7% in March compared with February. Prices on extraction and agglomeration of coal increased the most, 8.2%, followed by oil extraction, up 3.9%.
In manufacturing, prices rose 7.3% for other chemical production. Prices increased 4.7% for cosmetics and fragrances, and other main organic chemicals (butyl and isobutyl spirits, benzene, styrene and ethylene) were up 3.8%. In metals, production of pig iron and blast furnace ferroalloys were up 11.8%, hot-rolled and drop-forged steel - up 6.1%, ferroalloys other than blast furnace - up 6% and other nonferrous metals - up 4.2%.
Prices for production, transmission and distribution of electricity increased 0.5% in March.