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Employees in a steel mill (archive image): Metal costs 36 percent more
Photo: Ina Fassbender / AFP
High energy costs drove producer prices for commercial products in Germany to a post-war record in December 2021.
The prices were 24.2 percent above the value from the same month last year, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.
According to the authority, there has never been such an increase in the Federal Republic.
The annual average was an increase of 10.5 percent compared to the previous year after a decrease of 1.0 percent in 2020.
Producer prices are seen as a precursor to the development of inflation.
In the statistics, the prices are listed from the factory gate – i.e. before the products are further processed or sold.
You can thus give an early indication of the development of consumer prices.
In December 2021, these rose by 5.3 percent, the fastest in almost 30 years.
According to experts, they should increase by more than three percent on average in the current year.
Energy prices were an average of 69 percent higher in December than a year earlier.
Excluding energy, producer prices rose by only 10.4 percent.
In addition to gas and oil, various intermediate goods such as metals (+36.1 percent), fertilizers (+63.5 percent) and wooden packaging (+66.9 percent) also became significantly more expensive.
The increases in consumer goods (+4.7 percent) and capital goods (+3.8 percent) were less significant.
mic/dpa/Reuters
