Press release No. 094 of 10 March 2023
Consumer price index, February 2023
+8.7% on the same month a year earlier (provisional result confirmed)
+0.8% on the previous month (provisional result confirmed)
Harmonised index of consumer prices, February 2023
+9.3% on the same month a year earlier (provisional result confirmed)
+1.0% on the previous month (provisional result confirmed)
WIESBADEN − The inflation rate in Germany, measured as the year-on-year change in the consumer price index (CPI), stood at +8.7% in February 2023. In January 2023, the inflation rate had been +8.7% as well. “The inflation rate remains at a high level”, says Ruth Brand, President of the Federal Statistical Office. She adds: “Households felt the impact of higher food prices also in February, as they increased even more than energy prices.” The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that consumer prices in February 2023 were up 0.8% on January 2023.
High price increase continues due to special effects caused by the situation of war and crisis
Energy and food prices, in particular, have increased considerably since the war started in Ukraine and still have a substantial impact on the inflation rate. Due to the situation of war and crisis, delivery bottlenecks and rising prices at upstream stages in the economic process also have an impact on the inflation rate, which in turn leads to price increases for other goods and services.
Prices of energy products up 19.1% year on year
Energy product prices in February 2023 were 19.1% higher year on year despite the relief measures of the federal government. The increase in energy product prices was 23.1% in January 2023, it thus slowed down somewhat. Since January 2023, the increase in energy prices has been slowed to some extent by the electricity, natural gas and district heating price freezes taking effect retrospectively as of January 2023. The development of energy prices is however influenced by many factors, especially international purchase prices. A particularly large increase was again recorded for household energy prices from February 2022 to February 2023 (+32.2%). There were price rises of 46.6% for natural gas, 23.1% for electricity and 16.1% for district heating. Above-average prices increases of other household energy products also continued, with prices of firewood, wood pellets and other solid fuels up 41.7%, for example, and heating oil prices up 11.8%. The rate of price increase for motor fuels (+3.2%), in contrast, was below overall inflation.
21.8% increase in food prices year on year
Food prices were up 21.8% in February 2023 year on year. Food prices thus rose more rapidly than before (January 2023: +20.2%). Compared with the same month of the previous year, food prices increased even more in February 2023 than energy product prices as a whole. Higher prices were seen in all food groups also in February 2023. Considerably higher prices were recorded for dairy products and eggs (+35.3%) and bread and cereals(+24.3%). Substantial year-on-year price increases were seen also for edible fats and oils and for fish, fish products and seafood (+22.8% each). Very high price increases were observed for some foodstuffs. Consumers had to pay 69.9% more for sugar than in February 2022, for instance.
Inflation rate excluding energy and food at +5.7%
Excluding energy prices, the inflation rate stood at +7.6% in February 2023. The extent to which food prices currently affect the overall rate of price increase is shown by the inflation rate when energy and food are excluded. It was markedly lower at +5.7%. The inflation rate excluding energy and food nevertheless shows that inflation is high also for other product groups. This rate had been above the five-percent threshold already in December 2022 (+5.2%) and also exceeded the January 2023 figure of +5.6%.
Prices of goods up 12.4% on February 2022
The prices of goods (total) were up 12.4% in February 2023 compared with the same month a year earlier. The price increase for non-durable consumer goods was particularly large (+16.5%). Considerable price rises were recorded not only for energy and food but also for non-durable consumer goods for personal care (+15.1%), non-alcoholic beverages (+12.8%) and beer (+9.6%). Prices of durable consumer goods were up 6.1% on the same month of the previous year. Here notable price increases were observed for furniture and lighting equipment (+10.3%) as well as for second-hand passenger cars (+10.1%).
Service prices up 4.7% year on year
The prices of services (total) were up 4.7% in February 2023 compared with the same month a year earlier. Net rents exclusive of heating expenses rose 2.0%. Above-average price increases were observed for some services such as maintenance and repair of dwellings (+16.7%), catering services in restaurants, cafes and the like (+10.9%) and services of social facilities (+9.5%). Prices were down year on year only for a very small number of services, for instance, telecommunications services (-1.1%).
Overall food prices up 2.4% on the previous month
Compared with January 2023, the consumer price index rose by 0.8% in February 2023. Households again paid more for food (+2.4%). There were marked price increases especially for vegetables (+12.5%) and fruit (+2.7%). The prices of other food groups were up as well, for example bread and cereals (+2.2%). Worth mentioning was the price drop for edible fats and oils (-7.2%), especially butter cost substantially less than in the previous month (-14.2%). Energy prices (total) remained unchanged. Some energy products saw price increases nevertheless; the prices of natural gas (+0.6%) and electricity (+0.5%) went up despite the price freezes. Along with these price increases there were substantial price decreases for heating oil (-8.5%) and district heating (-6.7%). Motor fuel prices (total) remained nearly unchanged (+0.1%, including supergrade petrol: +1.4%, and, in contrast, diesel fuel: -3.6%).
Methodological notes:
The third relief package of the Federal Government contains measures aimed at containing the increase in energy prices. The reduction of the turnover tax on gas and district heating from 19% to 7% became effective already in October 2022, and in November 2022 that legal provision was retrospectively introduced also for liquefied gas to apply as of October 2022. In addition, the one-off payment of the December 2022 gas and heating invoices ("December immediate assistance") was adopted as a relief measure because of the rise in energy prices. It is partly reflected in the index but ceased to apply in January 2023. The abolishment of the EEG surcharge as of July 2022 is still reflected in the index as regards electricity. In addition to that, a further increase of the CO2 charge planned for 2023 was not implemented. Electricity, natural gas and district heating price freezes were newly introduced in 2023, taking effect retrospectively from January 2023. An overview explaining the relief measures and their impact on the consumer price index is available on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
The consumer price index (CPI) and the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) differ in coverage and methodology. In contrast to the HICP, the CPI includes also household expenditure on owner-occupied housing, games of chance and broadcasting fees. In addition, the HICP product weights are updated annually. As the weight of housing is much smaller in the HICP basket, price increases in other product groups have a larger impact on the HICP than on the CPI. These differences (coverage, methodology and weighting) explain the in part considerable differences between the CPI and the HICP for Germany. Explanatory notes and a methodological paper which discusses this issue are provided on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
Consumer price statistics revision
The consumer price index for Germany is revised and a new base year is introduced at regular intervals. With effect from reference month January 2023, the index has been rebased from the previous base 2015 to base year 2020. The results of the consumer price index for Germany were recalculated from January 2020 onwards. When the index was moved to base year 2020, the weighting pattern was updated and methodological refinements were implemented. The Federal Statistical Office provided detailed information on the subject in a press background briefing (only in german) on 22 February 2023. A recording of the background briefing and a detailed background paper on the CPI revision of 2023 (only in german) are available on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
Information on the revision is also provided on the “Consumer price index and inflation rate“ page and under the heading “Wertsicherung" (only in german) especially for users of consumer price indices in stable-value clauses.
Inflation Calculator informs about personal rate of inflation:
Consumers can use the Personal Inflation Calculator of the Federal Statistical Office to adapt their monthly consumption expenditure on individual product groups according to their own consumption patterns and to calculate their personal inflation rate. In addition, the Price Kaleidoscope gives an overview of the price trend and the weights of various products.
| Overall index / subindex | Weighting | Index 2020=100 | Change on the same period a year earlier | Change on the preceding month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in per mill | in per cent | |||
| 1: Results do not include operating costs. | ||||
| Overall index | 1,000.00 | 115.2 | 8.7 | 0.8 |
| Food and non-alcoholic-beverages | 119.04 | 129.9 | 20.7 | 2.3 |
| Food | 104.69 | 131.5 | 21.8 | 2.4 |
| Meat and meat products | 22.16 | 125.4 | 19.1 | 0.2 |
| Fruit | 11.62 | 112.4 | 7.5 | 2.7 |
| Vegetables | 13.72 | 141.8 | 20.1 | 12.5 |
| Alcoholic beverages and tobacco | 35.26 | 113.7 | 8.1 | 0.6 |
| Clothing and footwear | 42.25 | 101.7 | 4.3 | 1.1 |
| Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels | 259.25 | 114.1 | 8.3 | 0.1 |
| Actual net rent exclusive of heating expenses | 68.30 | 104.6 | 2.0 | 0.2 |
| Imputed rent | 104.13 | 104.0 | 2.0 | 0.2 |
| Household energy | 43.44 | 156.8 | 32.2 | -0.2 |
| Electricity | 24.50 | 139.6 | 23.1 | 0.5 |
| Gas 1 | 6.07 | 202.2 | 46.6 | 0.6 |
| Heating oil 1 | 1.70 | 210.7 | 11.8 | -8.5 |
| Furniture, lighting equipment, appliances and other household equipment | 67.78 | 116.4 | 9.2 | 0.7 |
| Health | 55.49 | 104.2 | 3.1 | 0.3 |
| Transport | 138.22 | 121.8 | 6.4 | 0.4 |
| Motor fuels | 30.46 | 144.8 | 3.2 | 0.1 |
| Supergrade petrol | 23.19 | 140.6 | 1.8 | 1.4 |
| Diesel fuel | 6.92 | 156.9 | 6.6 | -3.6 |
| Communication | 23.35 | 99.3 | -0.4 | -0.1 |
| Recreation and culture | 104.23 | 110.8 | 6.2 | 1.4 |
| Package holidays | 13.22 | 106.9 | 8.1 | 9.6 |
| Education | 9.06 | 108.0 | 3.7 | 0.3 |
| Restaurant and accommodation services | 47.20 | 116.9 | 10.5 | 0.7 |
| Miscellaneous goods and services | 98.87 | 111.0 | 6.7 | 0.6 |
More information:
Detailed results can be found in the tables on the consumer price index (61111-0004) and (61111-0006) and on the harmonised index of consumer prices (61121-0002) and (61121-0006) in the GENESIS-Online database. The table "Verbraucherpreisindex – Preisentwicklung für Nahrungsmittel" (only in german) contains information on changes in the prices of individual food products.
Consumer price index results are available also in the Dashboard Germany (www.dashboard-deutschland.de) (only in german). This data portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators from official statistics producers and other data providers on the topics of economy, finance, health and mobility. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor tool (Pulsmesser Wirtschaft) (only in german), which can be used for real-time monitoring of the economic development.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the related sanctions are having an impact on many parts of the economy and society. Relevant data and information are provided on a special webpage (www.destatis.de/ukraine).
