Price jumps for services and food led to the second highest inflation rate in the past year at the end of the year. Consumer prices in December were 2.6 percent higher than in the same month last year, as confirmed by the Federal Statistical Office. In 2024, there was only a higher inflation rate in January at 2.9 percent. From November to December last year, consumer prices rose by 0.5 percent, slightly more than initially calculated.
Economists expect that the inflation rate in the new year will initially remain above the two percent mark. Among other things, the increase in the CO2 price for gasoline, heating oil and gas as well as the increase in the price of the Germany ticket are likely to drive inflation. Higher inflation rates reduce the purchasing power of consumers, who can afford one euro less.
Inflation is much more moderate on average over the year
After all: Despite three months in a row with rising inflation rates, inflation in 2024 as a whole was significantly more moderate than in the previous three years. According to calculations by Wiesbaden statisticians, consumer prices rose by 2.2 percent on average over the year. Economists expect an average inflation rate of just over two percent for 2025 as a whole.
In 2022 (6.9 percent) and 2023 (5.9 percent), Germany had to cope with the highest inflation rates since reunification. Energy and food in particular rose sharply in price after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022.
No expert is currently expecting a new wave of inflation of this magnitude, even if a trade conflict with the USA, which will soon be led again by Donald Trump as president, could increase inflation. (dpa)