According to the report from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the inflation rate in Germany, measured as the year-on-year change in the consumer price index, stood at +2.5% in May 2021. The inflation rate rose for the fifth month in a row. That level was last recorded in September 2011, that is almost ten years ago. Destatis also reports that consumer prices were up 0.5% compared with April 2021.

The prices of goods (total) increased by 3.1% between May 2020 and May 2021, which was above average. Energy product prices were 10.0% higher than a year earlier, after +7.9% in April 2021. In addition to the current rise in energy prices, the increasing inflation rate was also attributable to temporary special effects, in particular the CO2 charge introduced at the beginning of the year and the low energy product prices recorded a year earlier (base effect). At that time, the prices of mineral oil products were especially low. A year-on-year price increase was therefore recorded especially for heating oil (+35.4%) and motor fuels (+27.5%). However, electricity prices were almost unchanged (-0.1%).

Excluding energy prices, the inflation rate would have been +1.8% in May 2021; excluding the prices of heating oil and motor fuels, it would have been only +1.6%.

Compared with April 2021, the consumer price index rose by 0.5%. The prices of energy products rose by 0.6%, especially heating oil became more expensive (+4.0%). In contrast, the prices of food went down slightly (-0.3%). Consumers had to pay less, in particular, for fresh vegetables (-4.6%) than in the previous month.