The prices for primary products have again risen enormously.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin German manufacturers raised their prices again at record speed in September. As in August, producer prices increased by an average of 45.8 percent compared to the same month last year due to expensive energy, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday.
“Thus, August and September 2022 saw the highest increases in producer prices compared to the same month last year since the survey began in 1949,” it said. Economists surveyed by the Reuters news agency had expected a slight decline to 44.7 percent.
“The increase in producer prices remains extreme,” said LBBW economist Jens-Oliver Niklasch. And this despite the fact that at 2.3 percent they grew much more slowly than in August with 7.9 percent.
In addition to energy, durable goods and consumables also cost significantly more. “A significant part of this will still reach private households in the coming months,” said Niklasch. “Inflation is high in 2022, it will stay high in 2023.”
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Producer prices are considered to be the forerunners 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. In September, consumer prices were 10.0 percent higher than a year earlier. Economists expect a further increase in the coming months.
Energy costs over 130 percent more
The main reason for the sharp rise in producer-level inflation is energy, which has cost significantly more since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24th. Here, producer prices were 132.2 percent higher than in September 2021. Industry, for example, had to pay more than three and a half times as much for natural gas as in the same month last year.
In addition, prices for intermediate goods (+16.8 percent), capital goods (+7.8 percent) and durable and non-durable consumer goods (10.9 and 18.3 percent) also rose significantly, partly as a result of the hugely expensive energy.
Food was almost a quarter more expensive than in the same month last year. The prices for butter (+72.2 percent), pork (+46.3 percent), cheese and quark (+39.7 percent) and milk (+37.5 percent) rose particularly sharply. Coffee was 32.0 percent more expensive.
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