* Sharpest yearly fall since February 1999
* Producer prices 0.7 percent lower
* Import prices down 6.7 percent
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ZURICH, April 16 (Reuters) - Swiss producer and import prices posted their sharpest yearly fall in nearly a decade, dragged lower by a big yearly fall in import prices as prices for energy and metal products dropped.
The combined producer and import price index was 0.5 percent lower compared to February and 2.8 percent lower than a year ago, the Federal Statistics Office said.
"It shows a continuation of the steady decline which began in August 2008," the Office wrote in a statement, adding that the fall was mainly due to lower energy and metal prices.
The year-on-year drop was the steepest since February 1999, when prices fell 2.9 percent year-on-year.
The Swiss National Bank has taken a drastic steps to fight the risk of deflation, including a cut in interest rates to 0.25 percent, intervention to weaken the Swiss franc and the purchase of corporate bonds.
"The main driver was coming from the weak import index. Looking at the components, energy is the key element here, pushing inflation below zero," said Credit Suisse economist Thomas Herrmann.
"For now we have a strong disinflation, but no signs of real deflation, so the SNB should not be too worried as yet."
Producer prices eased 0.7 percent on the year while import prices were 6.7 percent lower.
Swiss consumer prices declined by 0.4 percent in March on the year, the sharpest fall since 1959.
"The SNB's intervention in the foreign exchange markets will inevitably see the decline in import prices peter out," said Saara Tulli, economist at 4Cast Limited.
"Inflation pressures, for example on the consumer price level, are nonetheless likely to remain in negative territory until Q1 2010." (Reporting by Lisa Jucca and Josie Cox; editing by Chris Pizzey)