The steepest drop in producer prices since October of 2016 was led by manufacturing (-0.8% vs -0.3% in February) and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning (-0.1% vs 15.2%).

Elsewhere, costs slowed for mining and quarrying (0.3% vs 1.5%) while they continued to climb for water collection, treatment and supply (13.2% vs 8.5%).

On a monthly basis, producer prices went down 0.7%, after being flat in the previous month, SURS noted.