Munich, April 27, (dpa/GNA) – The Munich-based Ifo Institute believes the peak of Germany’s inflation wave has passed but it expects inflation to fall only very slowly.
On balance around a fifth of companies still plan to raise prices in the next three months, according to the monthly index of price expectations in the German economy published on Thursday.
The monthly price expectations index fell to 21.5 points in April from 27.1 in March. “The wave of price increases has thus probably already peaked,” Timo Wollmershäuser, head of Ifo economic research, said on Thursday.
The index points indicate what percentage of companies wish to raise their prices on balance. The unpleasant news for consumers is that the share of companies with price increase plans in the retail sector is much higher than average, with the index only falling from 48.7 to 43.2 points.
An above average number of businesses in the “consumer-related service providers” sector – restaurants and hairdressers, among others – want to increase their prices.
“Therefore, inflation is likely to decline only very slowly in the coming months,” Wollmershäuser said. Above all, the core rate – consumer prices excluding energy – will remain high.
GNA