FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Euro zone producer prices rose more than expected in October on the back of rising energy costs, fresh data from Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, showed on Tuesday.
Prices at factory gates in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.8 percent month-on-month in October against market expectations for a 0.5 percent rise in a Reuters poll of economists.
Year-on-year, producer prices rose by 4.9 percent in October, against market expectations for a 4.5 percent gain.
Energy prices rose 2.7 percent on the month and 14.6 percent on the year as crude prices rose.
Still, the increase is unlikely to worry European Central Bank policymakers as crude oil prices have fallen by about a third since early October, suggesting that energy prices pressures may ease in the months ahead.
Without volatile energy, producer prices were unchanged on the month and rose 1.5 percent year-on-year.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa)
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