There is NO INFLATION!! Only 5.9% in Germany
German Import Prices Increased 1.4% in
November, Exceeding Forecasts
By Christiane Buehler and Hellmuth Tromm
German Import Prices Rose 1.4% in November and 5.9% in Year
Wiesbaden, Germany, Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Prices of goods
imported into Germany rose for a 10th straight month in November,
evidence that the euro's decline and rising oil costs are fueling
inflation in Europe's largest economy.
Import prices rose 1.4 percent from October and rose 5.9
percent from a year earlier, the Federal Statistics Office said.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast prices would climb
0.7 percent in the month and 5.2 percent in the year.
Oil prices doubled this year and the euro declined 14
percent against the dollar. That's fed through to consumer
prices. Annual inflation quickened to 1 percent in November from
0.2 percent in January.
''The effects of rising oil prices and the falling euro will
last a few months, so we can expect import prices to increase
further,'' said Christoph Hausen, an economist at Commerzbank AG.
A report on December consumer prices, expected tomorrow, is
likely to show that annual inflation accelerated to 1.1 percent
from 1 percent, the third month in a row that it sped up.
The ECB on Nov. 4 raised its benchmark refinancing rate by
half a percentage point to 3 percent, the first increase since
the euro's start on Jan. 1, as an economic revival in the 11-
nation euro region takes hold. The bank aims to keep annual
inflation in the area below 2 percent.
Many analysts expect another rate increase in the first
quarter of next year. The 17-member ECB council, which last week
left interest rates unchanged, next meets Jan. 5.
Import prices were mainly boosted by a 10 percent monthly
increase in raw oil and oil products as well as an 8 percent rise
in natural gas. In November, the price of crude oil rose 8.6
percent from October and almost doubled from a year earlier, the
Hamburg-based HWWA economic research institute said.
Excluding oil, import prices rose 0.7 percent in the month
and rose 1.6 percent in the year. In October, overall import
prices rose 0.4 percent in the month and 4.2 percent in the year.
Export prices, the tag German companies put on goods shipped
abroad, rose 0.2 percent in November, and advanced 1.1 percent in
the year.
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