Germany's inflation rate dips to +7.5% in July 2022: Destatis

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that consumer prices in July 2022 were up 0.9 per cent in June 2022. The prices of clothing and footwear were also down (-2.7 per cent), which was mainly due to reductions in the prices of summer articles.

“The main reason for the high inflation still is price rises for energy products. Two measures of the relief package have had a slight downward effect on the overall inflation rate since June 2022: the 9-euro ticket and the fuel discount. In addition, the EEG surcharge was abolished in July 2022,” said Dr. Georg Thiel, president of the Federal Statistical Office, in a statement issued by Destatis.

The introduction of the 9-euro ticket, which took effect on June 1, 2022 and is limited to three months, had a downward effect on prices in public regional and short-distance passenger transport. Also, the reduction of the mineral-oil tax (fuel discount) has reduced motor fuel prices since June 2022. The year-on-year increase in transport prices (+5.4 per cent) eased as a result. In June, the rate of price increase had been +8.3 per cent, in May +16.3 per cent. In addition, the EEG surcharge (renewables 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 also had a slight downward effect on the increase in electricity prices.

The increase in prices of all energy products caused by various crises around the world is 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, especially many food products again.

Energy product prices in July 2022 were 35.5 per cent higher than in the same month a year earlier, following a +38.0 per cent increase in June 2022. The year-on-year increase in electricity prices was +18.1 per cent, decreasing slightly especially due to the abolishment of the EEG surcharge (June 2022: +22.0 per cent), added the report.

Prices of other energy products, too, rose markedly from July 2021 to July 2022. Heating oil prices more than doubled (+102.6 per cent). The increase in natural gas prices, for example, was +75.1 per cent. The price rise for energy products thus was markedly higher than the overall inflation rate despite the relief measures because it is influenced by several factors – among other things the international purchase prices and the CO2 charge.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)