Bulgaria's producer prices fell by 1.7% month-on-month in May after rising by 1.5% in April, the National Statistics Institute (NSI) said.
On an annual basis, producer prices in May were 3.2% higher, following an annual gain of 3.7% in the previous month, NSI said in a statement published on Friday.
The largest annual increase in May was registered in the utilities sector where producer prices went up by 7.2%, while in the mining and manufacturing they rose by 6.8% and 1.9% on the year, respectively.
Month-on-month, producer prices in manufacturing posted the biggest drop, by 2.1%, while the prices in the mining and utilities sectors edged down by 0.1% and 0.7%, respectively.
The index tracks changes in producer prices on the domestic market plus producer prices of Bulgarian products sold abroad. Economists see changes in producer prices as a key indicator of trends in consumer price inflation.