German wholesale prices rose at their highest annual rate since December 2000 in August, increasing by 4.2 percent from a year earlier, and 0.6 percent month-on-month, the Federal Statistics Office said on Monday. The annual rise of prices was particularly acute for ores, metals and semi-finished products (+28.4 percent), tobacco (+14.3 percent) and fuels and oil products (+12.2 percent). However, prices of pharmaceuticals dropped by 6.7 percent from August 2003 and office machinery by 3.9 percent. From July 2004, ore, metal and semi-finished product prices were up 1.2 percent, after a 3.0 percent rise in June and a 1.5 percent increase in July. Fuels and oil product prices gained 4.4 percent. Grains, seeds and animal feed prices dropped 11 percent during August.///