Press release No. 213 of 29 May 2024
Consumer price index, May 2024:
+2.4% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
+0.1% on the previous month (provisional)
Harmonised index of consumer prices, May 2024:
+2.8% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
+0.2% on the previous month (provisional)
WIESBADEN – The inflation rate in Germany is expected to be +2.4% in May 2024. The inflation rate is measured as the change in the consumer price index (CPI) compared with the same month a year earlier. Based on the results available so far, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that consumer prices are expected to increase by 0.1% on April 2024. The inflation rate excluding food and energy, often referred to as core inflation, is expected to be +3.0%.
| Overall index / subindex | Weight | February 2024 | March 2024 | April 2024 | May 20241 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| per thousand | percent | ||||
| 1: Provisional figures. 2: Core inflation. 3: Household energy and motor fuels. | |||||
| Overall index | 1,000 | 2.5 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.4 |
| Overall index excluding food and energy2 | 821.41 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Services | 503.36 | 3.4 | 3.7 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| Goods | 496.64 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
| including: | |||||
| Energy3 | 73.90 | -2.4 | -2.7 | -1.2 | -1.1 |
| Food | 104.69 | 0.9 | -0.7 | 0.5 | 0.6 |
Energy prices in May 2024 were lower again than in the same month a year earlier (-1.1%) despite the discontinuation of the brake on energy prices and the simultaneous introduction of a higher carbon price at the beginning of 2024, and the end of the temporary VAT reduction for gas and district heating in April 2024. The increase in food prices (+0.6%) was also substantially lower again than the general rate of price increase. By contrast, the prices of services in May 2024 were up 3.9% compared with May 2023.
Inflation Calculator for personal rate of inflation:
Consumers can use the Personal Inflation Calculator (only in German) 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 notes:
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 also includes household expenditure on owner-occupied housing, games of chance and broadcasting fees. In addition, the HICP product weights are updated annually and past data are generally not revised (only in German). 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.
More information:
The final results for May 2024 will be released on 12 June 2024.
