German wholesale price inflation reached its strongest level since late 2018

According to the report from Destatis, in February 2021 the selling prices in wholesale trade rose by 2.3% compared with February 2020. In January 2021 and in December 2020 the annual rates of change had been 0.0% and -1.2%, respectively. From January 2021 to February 2021 the index rose by 1.4%.

The biggest impact on the rate of change in the wholesale price index compared to the same month of the previous year was the increase in the wholesale price of ores, metals and semi-finished metals, up 15.3% compared to February 2020, due to the very high price increases for ores, especially iron ores, on the world market and as a result due to price increases in the metal industry.

There were particularly strong price increases compared to the previous year in the wholesale trade of waste materials and residues (+48.3 %) as well as cereals, raw tobacco, seeds and animal feed (+15.5 %).

On the other hand, prices for live animals (-26.3 %) and meat and meat products (-5.6%) were lower at wholesale level than in February 2020. The special development of prices for pigs and pork also had an effect on wholesale trade. This was characterised by high price increases in 2019 in connection with the very high demand from China, the fall in prices due to the lack of demand from the catering industry in 2020 due to corona, the hygiene-related shortage of capacity in slaughterhouses and the ban on imports of German pork from Asian countries imposed in September 2020. In the wholesale of data processing equipment, peripheral equipment and software, prices were 4.5% lower than in February 2020.