German import prices rose in April at their fastest annual rate since July 2001 as the cost of commodities like oil, steel and coal soared, the country's statistics office said on Friday. Import prices rose 0.4 percent compared with April 2003 and were up 0.5 percent from March, exactly in line with the consensus among analysts polled by . Annual price increases were led by copper, up 60.5 percent, coal, up 40.2 percent, and beef, up 19.0 percent. On the month, the fastest price rises were recorded for coal, up 10.1 percent, metals, up 6.8 percent, and oil products, up 6.5 percent, the Federal Statistics Office said. Excluding energy, import prices would have risen 0.4 percent month-on-month but would have fallen 0.5 percent from a year earlier, it added.///