BERLIN, Jan 13 - German wholesale prices fell by 0.1 percent in December but rose 1.3 percent year-on-year, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Tuesday. The annual average for 2003 was a rise of 0.9 percent compared with the previous year, with prices rising fast in the first quarter amid a soaring oil price and falling back from spring to autumn and picking up again in November and December. In November prices fell 0.1 percent month-on-month and rose by 1.5 percent year-on-year. Excluding oil, prices were flat compared to November and rose 1.3 percent from a year ago. In November, prices excluding oil rose by 0.1 percent month-on-month and 1.2 percent on the year. Compared with November, there were steep falls in prices of citrus fruits, down 13.7 percent, live pigs, down 12.3 percent, fish and fish products, down 8.0 percent, pork, down 7.9 percent, while prices rose for bananas, grain and animal feed.
Compared with the same period a year ago, there were sharp price rises for grains, up 34.5 percent, fresh eggs, up 31.7 percent, potatoes, up 30.1 percent, scrap iron and steel, up 27.8 percent and animal feed, up 7.6 percent. Prices for coffee fell 21.3 percent, live pigs 14.0 percent, medium heavy and heaving heating oil 11.3 percent, live cattle 7.0 percent and pork, down 6.2 percent on the year.//