MADRID, 12 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The German Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 2.2% year-on-year in March, which represents three tenths less than the figure of 2.5% recorded last February and the smallest increase in the cost of life since May 2021, as confirmed by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

"The inflation rate has continued to fall," highlighted Ruth Brand, president of Destatis, who explained that the situation with energy and food prices "had a moderating effect on inflation for the second consecutive month."

In turn, the harmonized inflation data, used by Eurostat in its statistics, slowed to 2.3% in the third month of 2024, four tenths below the 2.7% in February.

The moderation in the rise in prices in Germany in March is due to the 2.7% drop in the cost of energy, after the 2.4% year-on-year drop in February, but particularly the 0.7% decline recorded in the price of food, after the 0.9% increase in February, which represents the first annual drop in the cost of food since February 2015.

Thus, excluding the impact of energy from the calculation, Germany's inflation rate in March was 2.7%, while when fresh food was also excluded, the underlying rate stood at 3.3%, a tenth below the February figure.

However, in the third month of the year, while the price of goods moderated its rise to 1%, that of services accelerated it to 3.7%.