The inflation rate in Germany, measured as the year-on-year change in the consumer price index (CPI), stood at +7.9% in August 2022.
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The inflation rate thus increased slightly again (July 2022: +7.5%; June 2022: +7.6%), remaining clearly above 7% for half a year now.
“The main reason for the high inflation still is price rises for energy products and food. Two measures of the relief package had a slight downward effect on the overall inflation rate especially from June to August 2022: the 9-euro ticket and the fuel discount,†said Dr. Georg Thiel, President of the Federal Statistical Office.
The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that consumer prices in August 2022 were up 0.3% on July 2022.
The 9-euro ticket, which was introduced on 1 June 2022 for a period of three months, had a downward effect on prices in public regional and short-distance passenger transport for the last time in August 2022.
The lower mineral-oil tax (fuel discount) also reduced motor fuel prices as of June 2022.
These measures considerably reduced the year-on-year increase in transport prices, which was +3.7% in August 2022, +5.4% in July and +8.3% in June. In May 2022, the increase had been +16.3%.
In addition, the EEG surcharge was abolished in July 2022, which had amounted to 3.7 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity since the beginning of the year. This cushioned the effect of the electricity price increase only slightly.
Despite the special effects, the increase in the prices of all energy products due to the situation of war and crisis is still a major factor determining the inflation rate. Additional factors are again delivery bottlenecks due to interruptions in supply chains and marked price increases at upstream stages in the economic process.
This led to price rises not only for energy products, but also for other goods and services, among them again many food products.
Energy product prices in August 2022 were by 35.6% higher than in the same month a year earlier (July 2022: +35.7%).
There was a particularly large price increase for household energy (+46.4%). Heating oil prices more than doubled year on year (+111.5%), the increase in natural gas prices was +83.8%. Electricity prices rose by 16.6%.Motor fuel prices increased by 16.5% in August 2022, after having risen by 23.0% in July and 33.2% in June.
In May, the increase in motor fuel prices had been 41.0%. The price rise recorded for energy products was thus higher than the overall inflation rate despite the relief measures. This is due to several factors, especially the large increases of international purchase prices.
Food prices rose 16.6% in August 2022 compared with the same month a year earlier and thus also more than overall prices. The price increase accelerated for the sixth month in a row. Higher prices were seen in all food groups also in August 2022. Prices were considerably up for edible fats and oils (+44.5%) and for dairy products and eggs (+26.8%). Consumers had to pay notably higher prices also for meat and meat products (+18.6%) and for bread and cereals (+17.1%).
Excluding energy prices, the inflation rate stood at +4.7% in August 2022. The extent to which food prices currently affect the overall rate of price increase is shown by the inflation rate when energy and food are excluded. It stood at +3.5%, which is not even half the overall inflation rate.
The prices of goods (total) were up 14.7% in August 2022 on the same month of the previous year. The prices of non-durable consumer goods, which include also food and energy, increased by 19.5%. The prices of consumer durables rose by 5.8% (including furniture and lighting equipment: +9.3%; vehicles: +9.0%).
The prices of services (total) were up 2.2% in August 2022 on the same month of the previous year (July: +2.0%; June: +2.1%). A major reason for the slower price increase as of June 2022 was the introduction of the 9-euro ticket.
It led to marked price reductions in public regional and short-distance passenger transport.
In August 2022 prices were down year on year for both rail tickets in short-distance transport (-43.9%) and combined tickets for rail, bus and the like (-63.0%).
Services of social facilities (-2.1%) were also down on a year earlier, for example.
Net rents exclusive of heating expenses, in contrast, which are important as they account for a large part of household final consumption expenditure, rose by 1.8%.
Compared with July 2022, the consumer price index was up 0.3% in August 2022. Households again paid more for food in general (+1.5%, including dairy products: +2.7%). Energy prices (total) rose only slightly by 0.3%. Higher prices of household energy (+2.6%, including gas: +5.4%) were accompanied by lower motor fuel prices (-4.4%). ■