German wholesale prices register strongest decline in two decades

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

BERLIN, March 3 (Chinese media) -- The wholesale prices in Germany have registered

the strongest decline in two decades, the German Federal Statistical Office said

Tuesday.

According to the Wiesbaden-based body, the index of selling prices in

wholesale trade in the country was down 5.9 percent in January 2009 over a year

earlier, the strongest year-on-year decline since March 1987.

Compared with December 2008, the index of wholesale prices dropped 0.4

percent in January 2009.

The decline has showed that the European biggest economy is still

struggling in the abyss of the economic downturn.

Earlier, the office said Germany's GDP fell by 2.1 percent in the last

quarter of 2008 over the third quarter, the largest quarter-on-quarter decrease

ever recorded.