Enlarge image
Vegetable shelf in the supermarket: Above-average increases
Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa
Inflation in Germany rose to its highest level in more than 40 years in April due to higher energy and food prices in the wake of the Ukraine war.
Goods and services cost an average of 7.4 percent more than a year earlier, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Wednesday.
This is the highest level since the fall of 1981, when mineral oil prices also skyrocketed due to the first Gulf War between Iraq and Iran.
In March, the inflation rate was still 7.3 percent.
"The inflation rate reached a new high in unified Germany for the second month in a row," said the President of the Statistical Office, Georg Thiel.
An end to the strong upward pressure on prices is not yet in sight.
More companies than ever before want to raise their prices in the next three months, according to a survey by the Munich Ifo Institute.
"Inflation in Germany should therefore also be over seven percent in the coming months," said Ifo economic chief Timo Wollmershäuser.
The Russian attack on Ukraine is causing energy and raw material prices to rise dramatically.
Consumers feel this when filling up and heating.
Energy cost 35.3 percent more than in April 2021. With a premium of 98.6 percent, the prices for light heating oil have almost doubled.
Fuels (+38.5 percent) and natural gas (+47.5 percent) also became noticeably more expensive, as did electricity (+19.3 percent).
There were also above-average increases in food, which cost 8.6 percent more.
"The effects of the war in Ukraine are becoming increasingly visible here," emphasized the statisticians.
Edible fats and oils (+27.3 percent), meat and meat products (+11.8 percent), dairy products and eggs (+9.4 percent) and fresh vegetables (+9.3 percent) became significantly more expensive.
mike/Reuters