Exploding energy costs
Imports more expensive than they have been for decades
4/29/2022 9:53 am
Pandemic and war, ever higher energy costs and inflation – all of this is also reflected in import prices. These are now climbing to almost historic heights.
The rapidly rising energy costs made German imports more expensive in March than they have been in almost 48 years. Import prices increased by 31.2 percent compared to the same month last year, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office. “The current data are already reflecting the first effects of the war in Ukraine.” The last time there was a higher increase was in September 1974, at the time of the first oil price crisis.
Economists polled by Reuters had only expected an increase of 28.6 percent. From February to March, imports rose by 5.7 percent. One of the main reasons for the price pressure is the energy sector. Here, imports were a good 160 percent more expensive than in March 2021.
The high increase is due in particular to the sharp rise in the price of natural gas. These were four times as high as in the previous year (+304.3 percent). “Never before has natural gas become so much more expensive to import within a year than in March 2022, not even during the two oil crises of 1973/1974 and 1979/1980,” emphasized the statisticians.
Significantly more expensive than a year ago were mineral oil products with plus 110.3 percent and crude oil with plus 81.3 percent. Electricity was 440 percent more expensive than a year ago, and the price doubled in February. The prices for imported hard coal were more than 300 percent higher than in the previous year and also rose by a good 44 percent compared to the previous month.
Excluding energy, import prices in March were only 16.1 percent higher than in the same month last year. Because of the war in Ukraine, general inflation in Germany climbed to 7.4 percent in April. This is the highest level since October 1981. The federal government expects consumer prices to rise by an average of 6.1 percent this year – which would be the highest level since 1981. For comparison: last year the inflation rate was 3.1 percent, in 2020 it was only 0.5 percent.