Germany: Inflation sinks slightly in July

Inflation in Germany was 6.2% in July, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Tuesday, confirming preliminary figures issued at the end of last month.

It said that although the figure was 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous month, high food prices were continuing to keep the rate well above normal levels.

Inflation in June was 6.4% and in May 6.1%.

What did Destatis say?

The price for food items overall in Germany was 11% higher in a year-on-year comparison. Those with a sweet tooth are being forced to pay particularly high prices, with sugar, jam, honey and other sweet products almost 19% up on July 2020.

Bread and other cereal products cost consumers almost 17% more and vegetables almost 16%. The only products in the food sector that were cheaper were cooking oils and fats, which were a whole 12.9% lower than a year previously.

Energy costs were 5.7% higher than in July 2020, with electricity 17.6% more expensive, while oil for heating dropped in price by 35,5%.

Without the inclusion of food and energy in the statistics, inflation was at 5.5%.

School return more expensive

Materials for the return to school in August after the summer vacations were also much higher than a year previously, with exercise books and drawing paper up 13.6%

Last week, the EU statistics agency, Eurostat, said that inflation in the 20-nation eurozone fell to 5.3% in July, down almost a percentage point from May.

Economics expert Sebastian Dullien from the Düsseldorf-based  Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) told Reuters news agency that the figures show an overall trend to lower inflation and that he expected the figure to drop by much more in September.

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tj/wmr (AFP, Reuters)