Inflation in school satchels: notebooks, colored pencils and drawing pads more expensive than ever
Created: 08/18/2022 05:06
By: Stella Henrich
In some states, students are already going back to school.
The summer holidays are over.
In July, parents had to dig much deeper into their pockets to buy notebooks and pens.
Munich ‒ From pencils and vocabulary books to fountain pens and school satchels – starting school after the summer holidays usually involves a few purchases.
In July 2022, consumers with school-age children had to spend more to buy school supplies than they did a year earlier.
As reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden, the prices for certain school materials rose by 13.6 percent compared to the same month last year.
Consumer prices, i.e. the prices for the cost of living, increased by 7.5 percent in the same period.
Inflation in your knapsack: School materials have never been so expensive.
© Christopher Neundorf/imago
Above all, the prices for exercise books and drawing pads have risen by almost 14 percent, according to the Federal Office.
Pens and paint boxes as well as fountain pens and fountain pen cartridges posted an increase of 5.2 percent.
The prices for satchels were 4.7 percent above the level of July the previous year.
Inflation in your knapsack: Paper shortages are a reason for rising prices
The statisticians give the continuing shortage of paper and the rising costs of paper production as the main reasons for the price increase of exercise books and pads.
But it is not only these prices that reduce the purchasing power of consumers in Germany.
Energy and food prices have been the key drivers of inflation for months.
In May, consumers in Germany had to pay 38.3 percent more for energy than a year ago.
Heating oil was almost twice as expensive as in May 2021. Natural gas became more expensive by more than half.
The prices for fuel (41 percent) and electricity (21.5 percent) also rose significantly.
Baggage inflation: Consumers want tax cuts
The high inflation since the beginning of July is the biggest concern of consumers in Germany.
This was the result of a survey of a good 1,000 respondents by the insurer Allianz.
According to the survey, many consumers want tax cuts on energy products and food.
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But instead of further relieving consumers, the traffic light government is now deciding on a gas surcharge.
This stipulates that private customers and companies will have to pay more for gas from October.
For a Munich single household, for example, this means an annual plus of around 242 euros for the gas surcharge.
Baggage Inflation: Heavy Burden for Low-Income Families
Low-income families are already suffering from the high prices.
While consumer purchases in July were up 7.5 percent on the same month last year, low-income families even had to pay 8.4 percent more for their typical purchases, the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
(SZ) reports, citing that Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research in Düsseldorf.
For these families, it is above all household energy and food that play a particularly important role in spending, the
SZ
continues.
No wonder then that additional price increases for household energy will burden these families even more in the future.
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It remains to be hoped that yesterday's words by SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert will soon be followed by decisive relief for consumers.
He now announced on the Markus Lanz talk show that there will be further relief, which should be varied and adapted to the individual needs of income groups.
We are talking about income tax relief as well as cash payments, which students and pensioners prioritize.
