* Producer prices +0.1 pct mth/mth, -2.9 pct yr/yr
* Inflationary pressures remain weak
(Adds economist comment)
By Jan Strupczewski
BRUSSELS, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Euro zone producer prices edged up in December against the previous month and registered a smaller-than-expected decline against a year earlier, data showed on Tuesday, but inflationary pressures remained weak.
Prices at factory gates in the 16-country area rose 0.1 percent month-on-month and fell 2.9 percent year-on-year, the European Union's statistics office said.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected no change in the producer price index (PPI) month-on-month and a fall of 3.0 percent from a year earlier.
The figures "confirm that pipeline price pressures remain very subdued, supporting our view that euro zone CPI inflation will remain much weaker than in the U.S. and UK," said Ben May, economist at Capital Economics.
In November, prices rose by a revised 0.2 percent month-on-month and dipped 4.4 percent year-on-year.
Prices of intermediate, capital as well as durable and non-durable consumer goods rose in December by 0.1 percent on the month. Only energy prices fell, by 0.2 percent.
"PPI ... is rising but the headline and most subcomponents remain at exceptionally low levels with most still towards the bottom of their historical ranges," said Eoin O'Callaghan, economist at BNP Paribas.
"But it does appear that some of the 'core' categories are also now in the process of troughing out too," he said. Producer prices are important to the European Central Bank because they show inflationary pressure, or the reverse, early in the pipeline. The ECB wants annual consumer inflation to be just below 2 percent.
"Muted producer prices in December reinforce belief that underlying inflationary pressures are still very low in the euro zone despite headline inflation rising to 1.0 percent in January," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight.
This supports the case for the ECB to withdraw its emergency liquidity measures only very gradually, and to keep interest rates down at 1 percent not only at its February meeting on Thursday but also until at least late 2010, he said.
"The euro zone economy is still hardly racing ahead and serious uncertainties and concerns remain about the strength and sustainability of the recovery," Archer said. (Editing by Dale Hudson)