The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Inflation: Wholesale prices are rising faster than they have been in 13 years

2021-06-12T02:39:26.717Z


Mineral oil products, wood, grain: at the wholesale level, prices climbed by an average of almost ten percent in May compared to the previous year.


Enlarge image

Tree trunks from Saxony-Anhalt (archive picture): Wood is 38 percent more expensive

Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert / dpa

That will be expensive: In view of the upswing after the Corona crisis, prices in the wholesale sector are climbing faster than they have been since July 2008.

In May they were 9.7 percent above the level a year earlier, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

This accelerated the rise in prices: in April 2021 there was an increase of 7.2 percent and in March of 4.4 percent.

From April to May, prices climbed 1.7 percent.

The reason for the strong change is the effects of the virus pandemic. Because a year ago, many prices had plummeted in the wake of the recession. As a result, there is now high growth compared to the previous year. But the rise in import and producer prices is also leaving its mark.

In May, petroleum products, which rose by almost 47 percent in price, had the greatest influence on the inflation rate in wholesale.

There were also particularly strong price increases compared to the previous year in the wholesale of scrap and residual materials with an increase of 64.6 percent and in ores, metals and semi-finished metal products (41.2 percent).

Raw and sawn timber was also considerably more expensive than in the previous year (37.7 percent), as were grain, raw tobacco, seeds and animal feed (22.9 percent) and chemical products (11.4 percent).

Delivery problems for building materials such as steel, metal and wood are also causing problems for the construction industry.

In contrast, prices for data processing equipment and software (-4.7 percent) and live animals (-2.5 percent) at wholesale level were lower than in May 2020.

When wholesale prices go up, many companies pass those increases on to their customers.

Wholesale prices are therefore an indicator of the future development of consumer prices, which have recently risen sharply.

This increases the pressure on central banks such as the European Central Bank (ECB), which are supposed to ensure price stability.

In its most recent meeting, however, the ECB left rates unchanged.

mic / Reuters

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-06-12

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-13T09:12:21.212Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.