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Steel rollers at Thyssenkrupp: metals significantly more expensive
Photo: Michael Gottschalk / Getty Images
The rise in prices in Germany is accelerating.
The sales prices in German wholesaling rose more sharply in September than they have done in over 47 years.
They were 13.2 percent higher than a year earlier, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
The last time there was a stronger increase was in June 1974 when prices rose by 13.3 in the wake of the first oil crisis.
The development is an indicator of future inflation tendencies, as wholesaling is the hinge between manufacturers and end customers.
In August the rate of inflation in wholesale was 12.3 percent and in July 11.3 percent.
This was already unusually high.
"The high rise in wholesale prices compared to September 2020 is due, on the one hand, to the current sharp rise in prices for many raw materials and intermediate products," the statisticians wrote.
"On the other hand, there is a base effect due to the very low price level in the previous months in connection with the Corona crisis."
According to the information, a strong price driver was the development of ores, metals and intermediate products made of metal: they rose in price by 62.8 percent.
Petroleum products cost 42.3 percent more than a year earlier.
There were also particularly strong increases in the wholesale of scrap and residual materials (+84.6 percent) as well as with raw and sawn timber (+54.6 percent).
Grain, raw tobacco, seeds and animal feed also became considerably more expensive (+23.9 percent).
Wholesale is one of several economic levels in Germany on which the general price level is formed.
Added to this are the prices for goods imported into Germany and the prices that manufacturers receive for their products, the producer prices.
They all have an impact on consumer prices, which the European Central Bank uses to base its monetary policy.
In Germany, consumer prices had recently risen by 4.1 percent, the fastest they have been since the end of 1993.
According to experts, they could move further towards five percent by the end of the year.
Due to the rapid recovery of the world economy from the Corona recession, the prices for many products are currently rising rapidly.
The world's largest economies, the USA and China, in particular, are forecast to see strong growth this year, especially since major economic stimulus programs have been launched there.
mmq / Reuters / dpa
