The price of goods bought and sold by UK manufacturers, as estimated by the producer price index, continued to fall in the year to March 2016. Factory gate prices (output prices) for goods produced by UK manufacturers fell 0.9% in the year to March 2016, compared with a fall of 1.1% in the year to February 2016. Core factory gate prices, which exclude the more volatile food, beverage, tobacco and petroleum products, rose 0.2% in the year to March 2016, compared with a rise of 0.1% in the year to February 2016. The overall price of materials and fuels bought by UK manufacturers for processing (total input prices) fell 6.5% in the year to March 2016, compared with a fall of 8.2% in the year to February 2016.
In the US session Import Prices figures were released. The price index for U.S. imports rose 0.2% in March, the first monthly increase for the index since a 0.1% uptick in June 2015. The March advance was the largest 1-month rise since the index increased 1.1% in May 2015. Despite the upturn, overall import prices remained down over the past year, falling 6.2% from March 2015 to March 2016.
There will be no major data releases from the UK tomorrow. In the US session Retail Sales and PPI figures are scheduled for a release. Analysts predict 0.3% increase in Retail Sales and 0.1% rise in PPI.
Figures to watch:
Retail Sales (Friday 14:30)
PPI (Friday 14:30)
