MADRID, 10 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The harmonized inflation rate in Germany, used by Eurostat in its statistics, stood at 9.3% last February, one tenth above the increase registered in January, according to the second reading of the data published by the Federal Office of Statistics (Destatis).

In turn, the German consumer price index (CPI) remained stable in February at 8.7%, adding pressure to the European Central Bank (ECB), whose Governing Council will meet next week with the expectation to raise interest rates another 50 basis points.

"The inflation rate remains at a high level," acknowledged Ruth Brand, president of Destatis, stressing that German households felt the impact of higher food prices in February as well, "as they rose even more than prices of energy".

Specifically, in February the prices of energy products were 19.1% higher than the previous year, despite the relief measures of the federal government, although below the rise of 23.1% in January 2023.

In this sense, the German statistical office indicated that, since January 2023, the increase in energy prices has been slowed to a certain extent by the freezes on the prices of electricity, natural gas and district heating that entered effective retrospectively from the beginning of the year.

On the other hand, food prices increased by 21.8% in February, accelerating with respect to the 20.2% increase observed in January, with particularly significant increases in dairy products and eggs (35.3%) and bread. and cereals (24.3%). Likewise, Destatis warned of very high increases in the prices of some food products such as sugar (69.9%).

Thus, excluding energy prices, the inflation rate in Germany stood at 7.6% in February 2023, while also excluding food, the core inflation rate was 5.7%. , one tenth more than in January.