Producer prices in Italy last month were 4.6% higher than in December 2006 but declined by 0.1% from November, national statistics bureau Istat reported on Thursday.
The year-on-year increase was the second highest for 2007 and was in large part due to a hike in prices in the food sector, which in December were 8.7% higher than the pervious year and up 0.7% from November.
The 4.6% increase in December was 43% caused by increase for petroleum products, 24% for food products and 6.5% for metal products, Istat explained.
Producer prices for all 2007 were 3.4% higher than 2006.
