The decline in Portugal’s industrial producer prices accelerated in December, after easing slightly in the previous month, data from Statistics Portugal showed this week. It was the fifth consecutive month of decline.

Producer prices fell 1.8 percent in December from the previous month, due to a 6.7 percent drop in energy prices. The index dropped 3.3 percent year-on-year in December, much faster than November’s 1.1 percent fall.

According to the data, the index for energy prices plunged 10.4 percent year-on-year in December. Prices in the manufacturing sector fell 4.7 percent in December from a year earlier, following a 2.0 percent decline registered in the previous month.

In the whole year 2014, the average rate of growth of producer prices was -1.2 percent, against -0.1 percent in 2013.