No relief in sight
These foods have become particularly expensive
By Laura Stresing and Lukas Wessling
4/28/2022, 5:23 p.m
Corona pandemic and Ukraine war: Two crises are currently weighing on the global economy. From the consumer’s point of view, they primarily act as inflation drivers. However, not all areas of consumption are equally affected. A little overview.
Whether at the supermarket checkout or at the gas station, many consumers in Germany feel that their everyday lives are becoming more expensive. And it’s more than a feeling. Prices in Germany are rising sharply, which is also confirmed by the data from the Federal Statistical Office. The authority estimates the inflation rate, i.e. the change in consumer prices compared to the same month last year, for April 2022 at 7.4 percent. The last time the inflation rate was similarly high was during the first Gulf War in autumn 1981.
There is no relief in sight – on the contrary. A look at the developments along the entire production and supply chain shows that the price spiral is only just picking up. Producer prices rose by 30.9 percent in March 2022 compared to the previous year, according to the Federal Statistical Office in its online service “Dashboard Germany”. This is the highest increase since the survey began in 1949.
The Federal Statistical Office cites higher energy costs, which affect both producers and end consumers, as one of the main reasons for the price increases. Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is also leaving “first marks on current price developments”. Before that, the corona pandemic had thrown supply and demand on the world market out of sync and led to supply and production bottlenecks.
Both crises act as inflation drivers – but they have different effects on the individual areas of consumption. Services (+2.9 percent) and rents (+1.6%), for example, have risen less than food, which has risen by an average of 8.5 percent.
A closer look at the food sector also reveals major differences. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office for March, the prices of cooking oil and butter, for example, have risen sharply, while beer has even become cheaper.
Many staple foods cost significantly more than a year ago. This is increasingly becoming a problem for low-income households. The food banks, which provide the needy nationwide with food donations or discounted food, are already sounding the alarm: More and more people are dependent on the offers of help because they can no longer afford the more expensive food. Among them are many people who have fled from Ukraine. However, the food banks warn that the goods donated by the supermarkets are often no longer sufficient to provide for all those in need.
Consumers in Germany are at least partly responsible for this. In addition to the scarce supply, hoarding leads to empty supermarket shelves in many places. According to the Federal Statistical Office, demand for cooking oil, for example, was more than twice as high (up 123 percent) in the week from March 7th to 13th as it was almost half a year earlier in September 2021. Demand for flour tripled (up 206 percent) . According to the statistics office, a large-scale undersupply cannot be proven. The food trade also sees no imminent shortage.