The inflation rate in Germany, measured as the year-on-year change in the consumer price index (CPI), stood at +2.5% in February 2024. The inflation rate was +2.9% in January 2024, and +3.7% in December 2023. The last time inflation was lower than in February 2024 was in June 2021, when it stood at +2.4%. "The rate of inflation has continued to slow," says Ruth Brand, President of the Federal Statistical Office. She adds: "The price situation for energy products continues to ease. The increase in food prices has slowed markedly and is now below the overall inflation rate for the first time in more than two years." The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that consumer prices in February 2024 rose by 0.4% on January 2024.
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Energy product prices fell by 2.4% compared with February 2023
Energy prices in February 2024 were 2.4% lower than in the same month a year earlier despite the discontinuation of the brake on energy prices as of January 2024 and the introduction of a higher carbon price also from January 2024, which affects the price of fossil fuels such as motor fuels, heating oil and natural gas. The decrease in energy prices therefore continued to have a downward effect on the inflation rate. The decline in energy prices in the period from January 2023 to January 2024 had been slightly stronger (-2.8%).
From February 2023 to February 2024, prices of household energy fell by 3.6%. Compared with the same month of the preceding year, consumers mainly benefitted from lower prices for firewood, wood pellets and other solid fuels (-11.2%), but also for electricity (-7.9%) and natural gas (-7.5%). Motor fuel prices dropped by 0.4% in the same period. By contrast, the prices of some energy products were higher than a year earlier, for example, heating oil (+2.2%) and in particular district heating (+21.7%).
