The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that in January of this year, Germany’s consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation rate was 2.9%. In December of the previous year, it was 3.7%, and in November, it was 3.2%.
In January, there was a monthly increase of 0.2% in consumer prices (MoM). In June 2021, inflation was 2.4%, which was the last time it was less than the January rate. There were notable seasonal price reductions for footwear (down 3.5% MoM) and apparel (down 5.9% MoM).
Energy prices in Germany were 2.8% lower year over year in January of this year, despite the removal of the price cap on energy and the increase in the price of carbon from €30 to €45 per tonne, which has an impact on the cost of fossil fuels. The rate of inflation was slowed down by this.
The overall cost of energy increased by 1.2% in January MoM, which is a little bit greater.
In January, the inflation rate was 3.5% when energy prices were excluded. Excluding the prices of food and energy, the inflation rate was 3.4%. According to a press release from Destatis, these rates also show that inflation is still high and surpasses general inflation in other product groupings.
Core inflation—the YoY growth in the CPI that excludes food and energy—slowed down a little and hasn’t exceeded 4% since November 2023.
Between January 2023 and January 2024, the price of products as a whole climbed by 2.3%, with prices for both durable and non-durable consumer items rising by 2.3%.
