Press release No. 079 of 1 March 2023
Consumer price index, February 2023:
+8.7% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
+0.8% on the previous month (provisional)
Harmonised index of consumer prices, February 2023:
+9.3% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
+1.0% on the previous month (provisional)
WIESBADEN – The inflation rate in Germany is expected to be +8.7% in February 2023. 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 0.8% on January 2023.
| Overall index / subindex | Weight | November 2022 | December 2022 | January 2023 | February 2023 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| per thousand | percent | ||||
| 1: Provisional figure. 2: Household energy and motor fuels. 3: Actual housing rent. | |||||
| Overall index | 1,000 | 8.8 | 8.1 | 8.7 | 8.7 |
| Goods | 496.64 | 13.8 | 12.3 | 12.7 | 12.4 |
| including: | |||||
| Energy 2 | 73.90 | 31.4 | 20.3 | 23.1 | 19.1 |
| Food | 104.69 | 20.6 | 20.4 | 20.2 | 21.8 |
| Services | 503.36 | 3.7 | 3.9 | 4.5 | 4.7 |
| including: | |||||
| Rents 3 | 75.56 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
Energy and food prices, in particular, have increased considerably since the war started in Ukraine and have had a substantial impact on the inflation rate. In February 2023, food prices showed above-average growth (+21.8%) compared with the same month of the previous year. Energy prices, in contrast, eased slightly. To limit the increase of energy product prices, measures of the Federal Government’s third relief package have been adopted which are reflected in the consumer price index. Despite the relief measures, energy prices were 19.1% higher in February 2023 than in February 2022.
Inflation Calculator informs about 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:
With effect from reference month January 2023, the consumer price index has been rebased from 2015 to base year 2020. A detailed background document (only in german) providing information on the revision is available on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
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 includes also household expenditure on owner-occupied housing, games of chance and broadcasting fees. In addition, the HICP product weights are updated annually. 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 February 2023 will be released on 10 March 2023.
