Press release No. 003 of 4 January 2024
Consumer price index, December 2023:
+3.7% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
+0.1% on the previous month (provisional)
+5.9% on an annual average in 2023 compared with 2022 (provisional)
Harmonised index of consumer prices, December 2023:
+3.8% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
+0.2% on the previous month (provisional)
+6.0% on an annual average in 2023 compared with 2022 (provisional)
WIESBADEN – The inflation rate in Germany is expected to be +3.7% in December 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 0.1% on November 2023. The annual average inflation rate is expected to stand at +5.9% in 2023.
| Overall index / subindex | Weight | September 2023 | October 2023 | November 2023 | December 20231 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| per thousand | percent | ||||
| 1: Provisional figures. 2: Core inflation. 3: Household energy and motor fuels. | |||||
| Overall index | 1,000 | 4.5 | 3.8 | 3.2 | 3.7 |
| Overall index excluding food and energy2 | 821.41 | 4.6 | 4.3 | 3.8 | 3.5 |
| Services | 503.36 | 4.0 | 3.9 | 3.4 | 3.2 |
| Goods | 496.64 | 5.0 | 3.6 | 3.0 | 4.1 |
| including: | |||||
| Energy3 | 73.90 | 1.0 | -3.2 | -4.5 | 4.1 |
| Food | 104.69 | 7.5 | 6.1 | 5.5 | 4.5 |
The development of energy prices in December 2023 (+4.1% on the same month of the previous year) was driven by a base effect originating from a one-off measure, known as "December immediate assistance", whereby the Federal Government footed the bill for households' monthly advance payments on gas and heating in December 2022. Introduced by the Federal Government, this measure had a dampening effect on the overall index in December 2022 and, consequently, drove up the index in December 2023. The increase in food prices continued to slow in December 2023 (+4.5% on the same month a year earlier).
Inflation Calculator for 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:
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 also includes household expenditure on owner-occupied housing, games of chance and broadcasting fees. In addition, the HICP product weights are updated annually and past data are generally not revised (only in German). 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 December 2023 will be released on 16 January 2024.
