Consumer prices in Germany rose in line with forecasts in March

According to the report from Destatis, сonsumer prices in Germany were up 1.3% in March 2019 compared with March 2018. This was a decline in the inflation rate - as measured by the consumer price index - which had been 1.5% in February 2019.

The prices of energy products in March 2019 were up 4.2% year on year, which had an upward effect on the overall inflation rate. In the preceding two months, the increases in energy prices had been much smaller (February 2019: +2.9%; January 2019: +2.3%). In March 2019, food prices were up 0.7% year on year. The increase in food prices thus slowed again; in February 2019, the relevant rate of price increase had been +1.4%. Compared with the overall inflation rate, the prices of goods as a whole increased by an above-average 1.6% in March 2019 year on year, which was due to the rise in energy product prices (+4.2%). In March 2019, the prices of services (total) were up 1.2% year on year.

Compared with February 2019, the consumer price index rose by 0.4% in March 2019. Especially the prices of package holidays were markedly up in March 2019 on the previous month (+7.8%). In addition, price increases were recorded for footwear (+3.7%) and clothing (+3.0%) compared with February 2019. A reason here was the changeover to the spring and summer collection.