Press release No. 529 of 13 December 2022
Consumer price index, November 2022
+10.0% on the same month a year earlier (provisional result confirmed)
-0.5% on the previous month (provisional result confirmed)
Harmonised index of consumer prices, November 2022
+11.3% on the same month a year earlier (provisional result confirmed)
0.0% 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 +10.0% in November 2022. The inflation rate thus was slightly down, following a +10.4% increase in October 2022. “The inflation rate remains at a high level of +10.0% despite a slight slowdown in energy prices”, says Dr. Georg Thiel, President of the Federal Statistical Office. He also explains: “We see price increases for more and more other goods, in addition to energy. What has become particularly notable for households is the continuing increase in food prices.” The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that consumer prices in November 2022 were down 0.5% on October 2022.
Special effects caused by the situation of war and crisis continued to keep the price increase at a high level
Energy and food prices, in particular, have increased considerably since the war started in Ukraine and have had a substantial impact on the inflation rate. Due to the situation of war and crisis, delivery bottlenecks and price movements 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.
Various relief packages of the Federal Government have been implemented in 2022. Since October 2022, the turnover tax on gas supply and district heating has been reduced from 19% to 7%. This has been one of the first measures of the third relief package. This had a downward effect on the price increase for these energy products.
Prices of energy products up 38.7% year on year
Energy product prices were 38.7% higher in November 2022 than in the same month a year earlier, despite the relief measures. However, the price increase slowed a little (October 2022: +43.0%). There was a particularly large price increase for household energy again (+53.2%). Natural gas prices more than doubled (+112.2%) and district heating prices rose by +36.6%. Heating with other energy sources became more expensive, too. The prices of firewood, wood pellets and other solid fuels were up 96.3%, and prices of heating oil 55.0% on a year earlier. Electricity prices rose by 27.1%. Consumers had to pay markedly more not only for household energy but also for motor fuels (+14.6%). The main reason for the high prices of energy products in general is the international purchase prices. In addition, the increase in the CO2 charge (from 25 to 30 euros per tonne), which became effective at the beginning of the year, continued to have an impact on energy product price rises.
21.1% increase in food prices year on year
Food prices rose 21.1% in November 2022 compared with the same month a year earlier, which means that this price increase was more than twice the overall inflation rate. Overall, the food price increase has accelerated gradually since the beginning of the year (October 2022: +20.3%). Higher prices were seen in all food groups also in November 2022. Substantial price rises were recorded for edible fats and oils (+41.5%), and marked increases were observed for dairy products and eggs (+34.0%), bread and cereals (+21.1%) as well as vegetables (+20.1%).
Inflation rate excluding energy and food at +5.0%
Excluding energy prices, the inflation rate stood at +6.6% in November 2022. 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 much lower (+5.0%), only half the overall inflation rate.
Prices of goods up 17.1% on November 2021
The prices of goods (total) were up 17.1% in November 2022 on the same month of the previous year. The prices of non-durable consumer goods, which include also food and energy, increased even more (+22.8%). The prices of consumer durables rose by 6.6% year on year (including furniture and lighting equipment: +9.9%; vehicles: +9.1%).
Service prices up by only 3.6% compared with a year earlier
The prices of services (total) were up by 3.6% in November 2022 on the same month of the previous year. Net rents exclusive of heating expenses, which have much impact as they account for a large part of household final consumption expenditure, rose by 1.9%. Higher price increases were observed, for example, for catering services in restaurants, cafés and the like (+9.8%), hairdresser services and other services for personal care (+7.5%) and for the maintenance and repair of vehicles (+7.4%). The price reductions in public regional and short-distance passenger transport ended already in September 2022 when the 9-euro ticket was no longer available. The prices of rail tickets in short-distance transport (+2.5%) and combined tickets for rail, bus and the like (+2.0%) were up again year on year in November 2022. Lower prices were recorded for only a few services such as telecommunications (-1.3%).
Energy prices (total) were down 1.2% month on month, but not all energy products cost less
Compared with October 2022, the consumer price index declined by 0.5% in November 2022. The decrease was largely attributable to the seasonally lower prices of package holidays (-25.3%). The prices of energy (total) were also down slightly in November 2022 compared with the previous month (-1.2%). Price decreases were recorded especially for mineral oil products (-6.1%; of which heating oil: -13.6%; motor fuels: -3.5%). The prices of natural gas, in contrast, rose again (+2.9%), and price increases were observed also for district heating (+2.0%) and electricity (+1.4%). In addition, households again paid more for food (+1.2%), in particular for dairy products (+4.9%).
Methodological notes:
The third relief package has been adopted by the Federal Government and again 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 in October 2022, and in November 2022 that legal provision was retrospectively introduced also for liquefied gas to apply as of October 2022. The details of further relief measures are still being discussed while the one-off payment of the gas and heating invoices in December 2022 has now been confirmed. A final decision has yet to be made on temporary gas, heating and electricity price freezes to take effect at the beginning of 2023. The special effects caused by the 9-euro ticket and the fuel discount from the second relief package ended at the end of August 2022. The abolishment of the EEG surcharge as of July 2022 is still reflected in the index.
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.
Note: 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 will be rebased from 2015 to base year 2020. In this context, the results from January 2020 onwards will be recalculated. At the same time, the results using base year 2015 will be revised.
| 31 January 2023 | Provisional result for January 2023 |
| 22 February 2023 | Final result for January 2023 and all results recalculated from January 2020 onwards using the new 2020 base year |
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 2015=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 (such as hire of meters, reading of meters, standing charges etc.). | ||||
| Overall index | 1,000.00 | 121.6 | 10.0 | -0.5 |
| Food and non-alcoholic-beverages | 96.85 | 136.6 | 19.9 | 1.2 |
| Food | 84.87 | 138.8 | 21.1 | 1.2 |
| Meat and meat products | 18.60 | 142.8 | 19.8 | 0.6 |
| Fruit | 8.88 | 120.5 | 6.0 | -1.0 |
| Vegetables | 11.08 | 135.1 | 20.1 | -0.7 |
| Alcoholic beverages and tobacco | 37.77 | 125.0 | 6.7 | 0.3 |
| Clothing and footwear | 45.34 | 111.7 | 5.0 | 0.0 |
| Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels | 324.70 | 124.3 | 13.5 | 0.1 |
| Net rent exclusive of heating expenses | 196.32 | 111.2 | 1.9 | 0.2 |
| Household energy | 68.82 | 167.7 | 53.2 | -0.1 |
| Electricity | 25.92 | 143.1 | 27.1 | 1.4 |
| Gas 1 | 13.53 | 220.5 | 112.2 | 2.9 |
| Heating oil 1 | 7.01 | 228.8 | 55.0 | -13.6 |
| Furniture, lighting equipment, appliances and other household equipment | 50.04 | 116.6 | 9.6 | 0.5 |
| Health | 46.13 | 108.1 | 2.1 | 0.0 |
| Transport | 129.05 | 130.0 | 9.7 | -0.8 |
| Motor fuels | 35.01 | 147.5 | 14.6 | -3.5 |
| Supergrade petrol | 25.66 | 138.5 | 9.7 | -2.9 |
| Diesel fuel | 8.64 | 171.7 | 26.8 | -5.2 |
| Autogas | 0.71 | 179.5 | 31.3 | -0.1 |
| Communication | 26.72 | 93.9 | -0.3 | 0.0 |
| Recreation and culture | 113.36 | 109.9 | 5.2 | -6.0 |
| Package holidays | 26.62 | 94.1 | 7.1 | -25.3 |
| Education | 9.02 | 107.9 | 3.0 | 0.2 |
| Restaurant and accommodation services | 46.77 | 127.3 | 9.4 | 0.5 |
| Miscellaneous goods and services | 74.25 | 117.3 | 4.3 | 0.4 |
More information:
More information on consumer price statistics is contained in Fachserie 17, Reihe 7 "Verbraucherpreise für Deutschland". Detailed results can also 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 61121-0004) 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.
The consumer price index results are available on the Corona Statistics webpage (www.destatis.de/corona) of the Federal Statistical Office and in the Dashboard Germany (www.dashboard-deutschland.de), together with other indicators which can be used to assess the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dashboard Germany portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators of official statistics and of other data providers on the topics of economy and finance as well as health and mobility. The CPI also forms part of the Crisis Monitor (www.destatis.de/krisenmonitor), by means of which the Federal Statistical Office compares the development of major short-term indicators in the Covid-19 crisis and the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009.
The Russian attack on Ukraine and the relevant sanctions against Russia have had a strong impact on the economy and population and in particular on the energy sector. Data and information on the areas affected are provided on a special webpage (www.destatis.de/ukraine).
