Wholesale selling prices in Germany were 8.8 percent higher in October than a year earlier, the Federal Statistical Office Destatis reported on Friday, up from 8.7 percent in September and 6.8 percent in August. A higher annual increase was last recorded in February 2023, at 9.5 percent. Prices rose 0.4 percent on the month.
Destatis attributed the increase to the conflict in Iran and the Middle East, which has raised wholesale energy prices in particular. Mineral oil products were the main driver, up 47.6 percent year on year and 0.9 percent on the month. Grain, unmanufactured tobacco, seeds and animal feeds rose 21.2 percent year on year, chemical products 18.6 percent, non-ferrous metals and semi-finished products 13.8 percent, and computers and peripheral equipment 13.4 percent. Live animals fell 15.8 percent year on year, coffee, tea, cocoa and spices fell 8.4 percent, and milk, eggs and edible fats fell 7.1 percent.
The release lands in a split German picture. Final consumer inflation for October, confirmed on November 11, slowed to 2.8 percent with core at 2.1 percent, helped by the October 1 fuel discount; the wholesale data show the upstream energy impulse still building at the fastest pace in more than three years, which is the hawks’ pipeline argument for December in a single table.