2020.03.3013:54:00UTC+00German Inflation At 4-month Low

Germany's consumer price inflation eased to its lowest level in four months in March, led by a fall in energy prices, preliminary figures from Destatis showed on Monday. The consumer price index rose 1.4 percent year-on-year after a 1.7 percent increase in each of the previous two months.

The latest inflation rate was the lowest since November, when it was 1.1 percent. Energy prices fell 0.9 percent year-on-year after a 2 percent rise in February. This was the first fall since December. Food inflation accelerated to 3.7 percent from 3.3 percent. Services charges rose 1.4 percent after a 1.6 percent climb in the previous month. The harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP, rose 1.3 percent year-on-year in March after a 1.7 percent increase in February. That was the lowest since November, when it was 1.2 percent. Both the CPI and the HICP edged up 0.1 percent each from the previous month.

The statistical office assured good data quality pointing out that data collection for consumer price production was affected only marginally by the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, except for some regional bottlenecks, as prices are generally collected over a minimum period of one week around mid-month.

Destatis is set to release the final results for March April 16.