Press release No. 076 of 28 February 2023
Import prices, January 2023
+6.6% on the same month a year earlier
-1.2% on the previous month
Export prices, January 2023
+7.8% on the same month a year earlier
-0.8% on the previous month
WIESBADEN – Import prices were 6.6% higher in January 2023 than in January 2022. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that the rate of increase has slowed down. The year-on-year rate of change had been +12.6% in December 2022 and +14.5% in November 2022. Compared with December 2022, import prices were down 1.2% in January 2023. This was the fifth decrease in a row.
Year-on-year price increase mainly due to high prices for consumer goods and intermediate goods
The increase in year-on-year import prices continued to be mainly due to the rise in import prices for consumer goods (+8.8%), especially non-durable consumer goods (+9.2%), as well as for intermediate goods (+4.7%).
The year-on-year increase of import prices for energy (+8.1%) was still mainly due to the price increases for natural gas (+8.6%). Especially high were the price increases for imported hard coal (+19.6%) and for mineral oil products (+18.2%). In contrast, electricity prices decreased by 30.8% compared with January 2022 (-52.5% compared with December 2022).
While, compared to the previous month, consumer goods by +0.7% and intermediate goods by +0.3% became more expensive, energy’s import prices decreased significantly by 8.9% in January 2023 compared to December 2022. Especially prices for hard coal with -14.5% and natural gas with -12.6% were lower than a month before.
The index of import prices, excluding crude oil and mineral oil products, increased by 6.5% in January 2023 compared with January 2022and fell by 1.3% in comparison with December 2022.
Export prices pushed by increases in prices of intermediate and capital goods
The index of export prices was 7.8% higher in January 2023 than in January 2022. In December 2022 and November 2022, the year-on-year rate of change had been +10.6% and +11.6%, respectively. Compared with December 2022, export prices were down 0.8% in January 2023.
The price increase in January 2023 in comparison with January 2022 was mainly due to the development of intermediate goods. Exports of intermediate goods were 9.4% more expensive than in January 2022 (+0.8% compared with December 2022).
Capital goods prices increased by 6.6% compared with January 2022 (+1.0% on December 2022). The price development of capital goods was mainly influenced by machinery prices, which were up 9.3% on January 2022, followed by motor vehicle prices (+5.1%).
Energy exports were 0.9% more expensive than in January 2022 (-29.3% compared with December 2022). While mineral oil product prices were still up 17.7% compared to January 2022 (+2.0% on December 2022), the prices for natural gas were down 1.2%. Compared to December 2022 these prices decreased by 42.5%.
More detailed data and long time series are available in the tables Index of import prices (61411-0002 and 61411-0006) and Index of export prices (61421-0002 and 61421-0006) in the GENESIS-Online database.
Import price indices are also available in the Dashboard Germany (www.dashboard-deutschland.de) (only in german). This data portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators of official statistics and from other data providers on the topics of economy and finance as well as health and mobility.A tool also available there is the Economic Pulse Monitor (Pulsmesser für die Wirtschaft) (only in german). It can be used for real-time monitoring of the economic development.
