The inflation rate in Germany, measured as the year-on-year change in the consumer price index (CPI), stood at +7.9% in May 2022, reads the report of Destatis.

“The inflation rate thus reached an all-time high for the third month in a row since German reunification. The main reason for the high inflation still is price rises for energy products. But we also see price increases for many other goods, especially food”, said Dr. Georg Thiel, President of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

“A similarly high inflation rate was last recorded in the former territory of the Federal Republic in winter 1973/1974 when mineral oil prices had sharply increased as a consequence of the first oil crisis”, Thiel said. In March 2022, the inflation rate had stood at +7.3% and in April 2022 at +7.4%. The Federal Statistical Office also reports that consumer prices in May 2022 were up 0.9% on April 2022.

The increase in energy prices observed already before the war in Ukraine has markedly accelerated since war started and it has a substantial impact on the inflation rate. Additional factors are delivery bottlenecks due to interruptions in supply chains, also caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and marked price increases at upstream stages in the economic process. Price increases accelerated for consumers not only regarding energy products but also other products, such as many food products again, as a consequence of the situation of war and crisis.
Energy product prices in May 2022 were by 38.3% higher than in the same month a year earlier, following a +35.3% increase in April 2022. The prices of heating oil almost doubled (+94.8%) in May 2022. Natural gas prices (+55.2%) and motor fuel prices (+41.0%) increased considerably. The price rises for the other energy products were markedly above the overall inflation rate, too, for example the prices of solid fuels (+33.4%) and of electricity (+21.5%). The price increase for energy products was due to several factors: In addition to the war- and crisis-related effects, the increase in the CO2 charge from 25 euros to 30 euros per tonne of CO2, that became effective at the beginning of the year, had an impact here”, - reads the report.