This is the unedited press release from Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland


WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the consumer price index for Germany rose 2.8% between January 2007 and January 2008.Compared with December 2007, the index was down 0.4%.

The high year-on-year rate of price increase in January 2008 is again characterised by markedly higher energy and food prices. Those two areas account for more than half of the total price rise on a year earlier.

In a year-on-year comparison, and referring to energy products, prices were up especially for liquid fuel (+33.5%) and motor fuels (+13.1%; including Diesel fuel: +16.8% and regular petrol: +13.3%). Electricity prices, too, increased above average (+7.4%) on a year earlier, whereas gas prices were down by 1.6%. Not considering energy products (household energy and motor fuels), the year-on-year rate of price increase would have been +2.2%.

Food prices rose an average 7.7% from January 2007 to January 2008. Prices increased considerably for milk, cheese and eggs (+22.1%) as well as oils and fats (+18.8%). Also, prices of bread and cereals were markedly above previous year’s level (+7.6%).

The largest year-on-year price rise was recorded for education expenditure (+34.2%), the main reason still being the introduction of tuition fees in some Länder in April and October 2007.

Price trends on a year earlier remained consumer-friendly for information processing equipment (–18.0%) as well as photographic and cinematographic equipment (–9.5%). Above-average price falls were also observed for communication (-2.9%; including telephone and telefax equipment: –17.8%).

The 0.4% decrease of the consumer price index on December 2007 is mainly due to seasonal factors: Upon the end of the Christmas holidays, the prices of package holidays (–17.7%) and accommodation services (–15.8%) were down. Clothing and footwear prices, too, decreased by 2.6% on the previous month (of which: clothing:

–2.8%, and footwear: –2.4%) due to the coming seasonal change-over from the winter to the spring collections. However, some fruits and vegetables saw a typical seasonal price increase (including: tomatoes: +7.1%; cucumbers: +6.5% and grapes: +5.4%).


Available at:

http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/Sites/destatis/Internet/EN/press/pr/2008/02/PE08__084__611,templateId=renderPrint.psml