Year-on-year inflation in Germany slowed slightly in November but remained at 10%, after peaking at 10.4% in October, Germany’s federal statistics agency (Destatis) reported today.
Compared with October, the consumer price index (CPI) fell by 0.5%.
According to Destatis President Georg Thiel, “the inflation rate remains at a high level of 10.0%, despite a slight moderation in energy prices.”
“We are also seeing increasing price increases in many goods other than energy. Particularly notable for households is the increasing increase in food prices,” he said.
As a consequence of the war and crisis situation, supply problems and price developments in the intermediate economic stages also influence the inflation rate, also driving up the prices of other goods and services.
One of the first measures of the German government’s third aid package, the reduction of VAT on gas and district heating from 19 percent to 7 percent, which came into effect in October, has had a dampening effect on inflation for these energy products.
Despite the easing measures, energy products rose 38.7% year over year in November, although the price increase weakened somewhat after October’s 43.0%.
In particular, domestic energy prices rose sharply, by 53.2%.
Thus, natural gas prices more than doubled – by 112.2% – and district heating prices by 36.6%.
Heating with other energy sources also became more expensive: wood, pellets, or other solid fuels rose by 96.3 percent and light heating oil by 55 percent.
Meanwhile, electricity rose by 27.1%.
Consumers had to pay significantly more not only for household energy, but also for fuel – by 14.6%.
Food prices rose 21.1% year-on-year in November, more than double the increase in overall inflation, and after having already risen 20.3% in October and generally having risen gradually since the beginning of the year.
Once again, price increases were seen across all food groups: fats and oils rose considerably – by 41.5% – as did dairy products and eggs – by 34.0% – bread and cereals – by 21.1% and vegetables – by 20.1%.
Excluding the impact of energy, the inflation rate in November was 6.6%, and excluding energy and food, 5%.
Prices of goods as a whole rose 17.1% year-on-year: consumables rose 22.8%, while consumer durables increased 6.6%.
Services prices as a whole rose 3.6% year-on-year, including net rents, which rose 1.7%.
The services that increased the most were restaurants – by 9.8% – hairdressing and personal care – by 7.5% – and vehicle maintenance and repair – by 7.4%.
The harmonized CPI for Germany, which is calculated according to EU criteria, rose by 11.3% year-on-year in November and was unchanged from the previous month.