Press release No. 221 of 30 May 2022
Consumer price index, May 2022:
+7.9% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
+0.9% on the previous month (provisional)
Harmonised index of consumer prices, May 2022:
+8.7% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
+1.1% on the previous month (provisional)
WIESBADEN – The inflation rate in Germany is expected to be +7.9% in May 2022. The inflation rate is measured as the change in the consumer price index (CPI) compared with the same month a year earlier. In April 2022, the inflation rate had been +7.4%. Based on the results available so far, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that consumer prices are expected to increase by 0.9% on April 2022.
| Overall index / subindex | Weight | February 2022 | March 2022 | April 2022 | May 2022 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| per thousand | percent | ||||
| 1: Provisional figure. 2: Household energy and motor fuels. 3: Net rents and other rents. | |||||
| Overall index | 1,000 | 5.1 | 7.3 | 7.4 | 7.9 |
| Goods | 468.16 | 7.9 | 12.3 | 12.2 | 13.6 |
| including: | |||||
| Energy 2 | 103.83 | 22.5 | 39.5 | 35.3 | 38.3 |
| Food | 84.87 | 5.3 | 6.2 | 8.6 | 11.1 |
| Services | 531.84 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 3.2 | 2.9 |
| including: | |||||
| Rents 3 | 207.26 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 |
Energy prices, in particular, have increased considerably since the war started in Ukraine and have had a considerable impact on the high inflation rate. Prices of energy rose by 38.3% in May 2022 year on year. Food prices, too, increased above average (+11.1%). Marked price increases at the upstream stages in the economic process have an upward effect on prices. Another factor with an upward effect on prices is interruptions in supply chains caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. An inflation rate similar to that of May 2022 was last recorded in Germany in winter 1973/1974 when mineral oil prices had sharply increased, too, as a consequence of the first oil crisis.
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.
Methodological note:
The Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences for public life still require a changed approach to the updating of the product weights used in the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP). A methodological paper which discusses this issue is provided on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
More information:
The final results for May 2022 will be released on 14 June 2022.
