Press release No. 210 of 31 May 2023
Consumer price index, May 2023:
+6.1% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
-0.1% on the previous month (provisional)
Harmonised index of consumer prices, May 2023:
+6.3% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)
-0.2% on the previous month (provisional)
WIESBADEN – The inflation rate in Germany is expected to be +6.1% in May 2023. It is measured as the change in the consumer price index (CPI) compared with the same month a year earlier. The inflation rate therefore continued to fall in May 2023 (April 2023: +7.2%, March 2023: +7.4% and February 2023: +8.7%). Based on the results available so far, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that consumer prices are expected to decline by 0.1% on April 2023.
| Overall index / subindex | Weight | February 2023 | March 2023 | April 2023 | May 2023 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| per thousand | percent | ||||
| 1: Provisional figure. 2: Household energy and motor fuels. 3: Actual housing rent. | |||||
| Overall index | 1,000 | 8.7 | 7.4 | 7.2 | 6.1 |
| Goods | 496.64 | 12.4 | 9.8 | 9.3 | 7.7 |
| including: | |||||
| Energy 2 | 73.90 | 19.1 | 3.5 | 6.8 | 2.6 |
| Food | 104.69 | 21.8 | 22.3 | 17.2 | 14.9 |
| Services | 503.36 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.5 |
| including: | |||||
| Rents 3 | 75.56 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
In May 2023, food prices continued to show above-average growth (+14.9%) compared with the same month of the previous year. At +2.6%, the year-on-year increase in energy prices in May 2023 was, however, lower than the change rate of the overall index. There is a base effect as the index level was high in May 2022 after energy prices had soared following the Russian attack on Ukraine. In addition, the measures of the Federal Government’s third relief package, which are reflected in the consumer price index, contributed to the slowing of the energy price increase. The slight downward trend observed in the service sector is probably due in part to the introduction of the Germany ticket.
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:
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 also includes 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 May 2023 will be released on 13 June 2023.
