According to the Federal Statistical Office, the inflation rate in Germany is at its highest level for almost 30 years.
According to the office, a certain effect is responsible.
Berlin - Bad news for German consumers: In July, the inflation rate jumped to its highest level in almost 30 years.
Consumer prices were 3.8 percent above the level of the same month last year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday based on a preliminary calculation.
As a result, life in Germany has become much more expensive - and inflation is likely to continue to rise in the coming months.
According to the Federal Office, a base effect is responsible for the high increase in July in particular, which can be attributed to the corona-related * reduction in VAT rates in July 2020.
Since January 2021, the VAT rates for almost all goods and services have been back to the previous level.
Inflation rises dramatically: price jumps in many areas
The exact amount of the base effect is difficult to name, however, since other price effects also have an effect, such as CO2 pricing and usual market developments, explained the statisticians. When the VAT rate was cut in July 2020, the purely arithmetical effect was minus 1.6 percentage points. Energy prices rose by 11.6 percent year-on-year in July. According to statistics, food became more expensive by 4.3 percent. The price of services, including apartment rent, rose 1.3 percent.
Fritzi Köhler-Geib, chief economist of the state development bank KfW, explained that prices have risen significantly in the areas that benefit particularly strongly from the openings.
In addition, producer prices rose as sharply in June as they did last during the second oil crisis in 1982. That will "sooner or later make itself felt in consumers' wallets".
Inflation in Germany at 3.8 percent: high prices owed to the economic recovery
Köhler-Geib emphasized that the higher producer prices are mainly due to increased energy and raw material prices in the wake of the economic recovery. In addition, the special effect of the return to the original VAT rates will take effect from this month, she said. "This effect should be the main driver of the inflation trend by the end of the year." According to her, inflation should be slightly below the European Central Bank's target of 2.0 percent as early as 2022.
The head of the Public Finance Research Department at the Leibniz Center for European Economic Research (ZEW), Friedrich Heinemann, on the other hand, warned of the "strongest surge in inflation in three decades" in the coming months.
"Even if some of these effects are only temporary, the consequences and risks of the sharp rise in inflation should not be played down."
In the coming months, economists believe inflation rates of around five percent in Germany are possible.
(AFP / dpa / fmü) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
List of rubric lists: © Daniel Reinhardt / dpa / dpa-tmn
