Berlin The explosion in oil and gas prices is making German imports more expensive than they have been since the second oil crisis in the early 1980s. The import prices rose in October by 21.7 percent compared to the same month last year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Friday.
There was a similarly high rate in the oil crisis of 1980 in the wake of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, when a value of 21.8 percent was reached in January of that year. Economists polled by Reuters now expected an increase of only 19.6 percent. In September the plus was 17.7 percent, in August 16.5 percent.
Experts expect that the increased import costs will also affect consumer prices. Rising oil and fuel prices had already caused the inflation rate to climb to 4.5 percent in October, the highest level in 28 years. The Bundesbank assumes that almost six percent will be achieved in November.
The sharp rise in import prices is also primarily due to the rapidly rising costs of energy: importing them rose by 141.0 percent compared to October 2020. The price premium for natural gas was particularly high at 193.9 percent, and for crude oil it is an increase of 105.9 percent. The import prices for imported hard coal rose by 213.2 percent.
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Export prices also rose sharply. According to the statistics office, the corresponding index was 9.5 percent above the previous year’s level in October – the largest increase since January 1975. In September and August, values of 8.1 and 7.2 percent were obtained.
More: German economy grows by 1.7 percent in the third quarter