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Inflation and gas prices: funerals are becoming significantly more expensive

2022-06-09T10:53:21.488Z


Inflation and gas prices: funerals are becoming significantly more expensive Created: 06/09/2022, 12:43 p.m By: Lisa Mayerhofer In 2021, over a million people died in Germany. © Sven Hoppe/dpa Inflation affects not only life but also death. Burials are now significantly more expensive - from the coffin to the cremation. Wiesbaden – Inflation in Germany has been at a record level for some time


Inflation and gas prices: funerals are becoming significantly more expensive

Created: 06/09/2022, 12:43 p.m

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

In 2021, over a million people died in Germany.

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

Inflation affects not only life but also death.

Burials are now significantly more expensive - from the coffin to the cremation.

Wiesbaden – Inflation in Germany has been at a record level for some time now: consumer prices in May were 7.9 percent above the level of the same month last year and thus for the third month in a row above the seven percent mark.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, prices rose by 0.9 percent from April to May 2022.

Inflation in May at a record level - even funerals are more expensive

Inflation rates at this level had not previously existed in reunified Germany.

In the old federal states, you have to go back in the time series to the winter of 1973/1974 to find similarly high values.

At that time, mineral oil prices had risen sharply as a result of the first oil crisis.

The sharp rise in energy prices is currently also driving inflation in Germany and in the euro area as a whole.

This trend, which has been observed for months, has been exacerbated by the Russian attack on Ukraine.

In addition, as during the Corona pandemic, the industry is struggling with the fact that supply chains are not working smoothly.

Consumers feel this in many areas: In addition to electricity and heating costs, the prices for food such as dairy products, cooking oils and vegetables are also increasing, sometimes blatantly.

But it is not only life that has become more expensive - dying is also becoming more expensive: The prices for burials have risen sharply due to inflation, a lack of raw materials and the energy crisis.

War in Ukraine and lack of raw materials: Coffins are becoming significantly more expensive

Germany's coffin manufacturers are planning to raise their prices sharply.

This was the result of an industry survey by the Federal Association for Funeral Needs.

As a result, more than every second manufacturer wants to raise prices by ten to 20 percent in the current year.

Some companies want to charge even more.

Association head Jürgen Stahl justified the surcharges primarily with the consequences of the Ukraine war.

Energy and wood have become more expensive, and there are also bottlenecks in the supply of primary products.

Manufacturers also use goods from Ukraine, such as metal clips and yarn for interior trim.

The price increase that is now imminent is remarkable in that the domestic industry has already increased prices in the low double-digit percentage range in the past two years, according to the association - mainly because of higher wood prices.

In Germany, a coffin made in Germany that is cremated costs around 250 to 400 euros, according to the association.

For coffins that go underground, the price range is often 300 to 600 euros - although there are also significantly more expensive coffins that cost several thousand euros.

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Energy and gas prices: surcharges for crematoria

It's about the prices that the manufacturers charge the undertakers.

However, the undertakers will pass them on to the customers, as Stephan Neuser, Secretary General of the Federal Association of German Undertakers, confirmed to the

world

.

"We also have significantly increased costs for the cold stores and for the transfer of the corpses to the hearse," he explains, which would have to be passed on to the relatives.

The crematoria also have to raise their prices because of the gas crisis.

From October, customers will also have to pay significant surcharges for cremations, as Karl-Heinz Könsgen, managing director of Germany's largest crematorium, Krematorium in Rhineland-Palatinate, told the world.

Because the new energy supply contract, which the managing director recently had to conclude, will begin in October.

"Our purchase price will then be five times as high as it is now," Könsgen told Die

Welt

.

"We cannot compensate for that."

(lma/dpa/AFP)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-06-09

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