German inflation jumps to 3.3%, its highest since 2023, and Berlin pays more still
Diesel and heating oil cost half as much again as a year ago. Food barely moved and butter got cheaper. From today a three-month fuel discount takes about 17 cents off every litre.
Consumer prices in Germany were 3.3% higher in September than a year earlier, up from 2.9% in August, the Federal Statistical Office said in its first estimate. It is the first time since the end of 2023 that inflation has been above 3%. Prices rose 0.6% in the month alone. The cause is fuel: with the war in the Middle East pushing oil above $100 a barrel at times, the ADAC recorded several record prices for diesel and petrol in September.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, diesel cost 48.7% more than a year earlier, petrol 33.8% and heating oil 49.9%. Food, by contrast, rose only 0.4% and services 2.7%, slightly less than in August. Core inflation held at 2.4%. In the capital region it is worse: Berlin's rate reached 3.4% and Brandenburg's 3.6%, with fuel up 41.3% and 37.8%. Food in Berlin actually got 0.2% cheaper, and butter 25.7% cheaper.
The government's answer starts this morning. Until the end of the year, a new Tankrabatt cuts fuel tax by about 17 cents a litre, and heise reports E10 already under €2 a litre at some stations at dawn. The first discount, in May and June, held inflation down, but prices climbed again when it ended, and critics have not let up. Experts quoted by rbb expect the rate to fall back below 3% while it lasts.
The risk is what comes after. Import prices rose by more than 8% in August, the most since late 2022, and the drought that has left the Rhine low makes shipping dearer. "Fuel and heating oil have already become noticeably more expensive; in winter energy suppliers are likely to raise electricity and gas prices," said Timo Wollmershäuser of the ifo institute.