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Grain harvest in Hessen: Price increases affect almost all areas.
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / picture alliance / dpa
Manufacturer prices are rising at an ever faster pace.
In October they were 21.9 percent above the value of the corresponding month of the previous year, as reported by the Eurostat statistics office.
The rate is thus higher than it has ever been since the start of monetary union in 1999.
It also exceeds previous estimates: analysts had expected an average increase of 19.0 percent.
It was only in September that inflation was 16.1 percent, the highest value to date.
The energy is particularly expensive
The prices that manufacturers receive for their goods also rose significantly in a month-on-month comparison.
From September to October they rose by 5.4 percent, after 2.8 percent in the previous month.
Here too, analysts' expectations were exceeded.
The increase in energy prices is particularly high.
Gas and electricity were 62.5 percent more expensive than a year earlier.
There are several reasons for this: After the slump as a result of the first corona wave, global demand has now normalized.
But the supply has not increased to the same extent.
In addition, the situation is politically charged: the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom is often criticized for not increasing its deliveries to Germany despite the high demand.
If you take the energy out of the bill, the total producer prices rose by 8.9 percent.
The prices for intermediate goods also rose significantly by 16.8 percent, probably a consequence of the numerous problems in the international supply chains.
Consumers feel the effects of price increases
The producer prices measure the price pressure at the producer level by capturing the selling prices of the companies.
The development flows partly into the consumer prices, on which the European Central Bank (ECB) bases its monetary policy.
In November the cost of living rose by 4.9 percent, the highest rate ever since the eurozone was founded.
The ECB primarily blames temporary corona factors for the high rate.
jlk / dpa
