Press release No. 210 of 28 May 2024
Wholesale selling prices, April 2024
-1.8% on the same month a year earlier
+0.4% on the previous month
WIESBADEN – In April 2024, the selling prices in wholesale trade were 1.8% lower than in April 2023. This is the first up-to-date monthly result following the rebasing of wholesale selling prices to the new base year 2021 (only in German). In March 2024, the year-on-year change rate was -2.6% using 2021 as the base year (base year 2015: -3.0%), in February it was -2.7% (base year 2015: -3.0%). The difference between the new rates of change and those based on base year 2015 is due to the modified weights implemented in the new weighting scheme and the modified basket of goods. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that wholesale prices in April 2024 rose by 0.4% on March 2024.
Lower prices for chemical products
Lower prices in the wholesale of chemical products (-17.9%) were the main reason for the year-on-year decrease in wholesale prices (total) in April 2024. Compared with March 2024, these prices dropped by 1.5%. Lower year-on-year wholesale prices were also recorded in particular for grain, unmanufactured tobacco, seeds and animal feeds (-12.2%), metals and metal ores (-7.2%), waste and scrap (-6.8%), and milk, milk products, eggs, edible fats and oils (-6.3%).
By contrast, the wholesale prices of coffee, tea, cocoa and spices (+9.3%) were higher than in April 2023. In April 2024, sugar, confectionery and bakery products (+7.2%) and tobacco products (+5.0%) also cost more at wholesale level than a year earlier.
Rebasing wholesale selling prices
The indices of wholesale selling prices have been rebased to 2021 as of reference month April 2024. The weights and the basket of goods used to calculate the indices were updated to the new base year 2021. As a general rule, the base year is changed every five years.
When the base year was changed, all indices as of January 2021 were recalculated, taking account of the new weighting scheme, and the price indices based on 2015 were revised. More information on the rebasing (only in German) is available in the "Revisionen in der Preisstatistik" (only in German) section on the "Preisstatistik im Überblick" (only in German) page of the Federal Statistical Office’s website.
More information:
The statistical report (only in German) on the index of wholesale selling prices also includes the latest results. Long time series are available in the tables on the index of wholesale selling prices (61281-0002 and 61281-0004) in the GENESIS-Online database.
Wholesale selling prices are available on 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 the economy, finance, health and mobility. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor (Pulsmesser für die Wirtschaft) (only in German) tool for real-time economic monitoring.
