Dhe German manufacturers once again increased their prices at record speed in May as a result of the Ukraine war. Producer prices rose by an average of 33.6 percent. “This was the highest year-on-year increase since the survey began in 1949,” the Federal Statistical Office said on Monday. “As a result, commercial producer prices have recorded new record increases every month since December 2021.” Economists surveyed by Reuters were unchanged of 33.5 percent Producer prices went up by 1.6 percent from April to May alone.
These are regarded as precursors for the development of general inflation. In the statistics, the prices are listed from the factory gate – even before the products are further processed or sold. At 7.9 percent, the inflation rate is currently higher than it has been since the winter of 1973/1974.
“So far, companies have probably only partially passed on the massive increase in producer prices to end consumers,” commented Commerzbank economist Ralph Solveen. For this reason, the underlying momentum for consumer prices should at least remain very high, and under certain circumstances even increase slightly, he expects.
The main reason for the increase in producer prices is again energy, which has cost significantly more since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th. Producer prices here were 87.1 percent higher than in May 2021. Natural gas rose by 148.1 percent. Power plants paid 241.2 percent more for natural gas than a year earlier, industrial customers 210.7 percent and resellers 168.3 percent more. Petroleum products cost 55.8 percent more than a year earlier. Light heating oil was almost twice as expensive, while 49.4 percent more was required for fuel.
There were also high price increases for intermediate goods, especially metals, fertilizers and animal feed, as well as industrial gases and packaging materials made of wood. Food prices increased by 19.2 percent. The prices for butter (+80.2 percent), untreated vegetable oils (+68.4 percent), beef (+42.9 percent), coffee (+33.6 percent) and milk and milk products (+24 1).
