Prices
- Consumer price indices for Germany
- Price indices for imports and exports
- Price indices for the construction sector
- Producer prices of industrial goods
The continual observation of price stability is based on analyses of price statistics. Particular attention is usually paid to the German Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) and the national Consumer Price Index (CPI), which are both published by the Federal Statistical Office and often used throughout the EU and as inflation measures. Producer prices of agricultural and commercial goods are used as leading indicators.
Seasonally and working-day-adjusted or just working-day-adjusted time series – depending on the indicator – are provided in addition to the unadjusted figures. The adjusted data are estimated using version 0.2.8 of the Census X-12-ARIMA program.
Real-time data are available for selected indicators.
Consumer price indices for Germany
The Consumer Price Index, which is calculated every month by the Federal Statistical Office, measures the average change in the price of all goods and services that are bought or used by households for consumption purposes in the respective reporting period compared with the base year. The year-on-year rate of change is generally used as a measure of inflation. In addition, the Federal Statistical Office publishes the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for Germany, which is calculated according to EU-wide harmonised criteria and enters into the calculation of the European HICP. The euro-area HICP is published by the statistical office of the European Community (Eurostat) and is used by the Eurosystem mainly as a measure of inflation.
Price indices for imports and exports
The price indices for imports and exports of goods are compiled monthly by the Federal Statistical Office. They show the development of the prices of all goods that are traded between Germany and other countries. The results are formally presented as Laspeyres price indices: they represent price measures weighted with their share in the foreign trade statistics in the base year.
Price indices for the construction sector
Indices of construction work prices show the development of prices for conventionally manufactured new buildings in selected civil engineering construction styles, as well as for maintenance work undertaken on residential buildings compared with the base year. The Federal Statistical Office publishes the construction price index components, which are consolidated by the Bundesbank, quarterly. The indices are based on surveys of the prices for 186 selected construction services at a representative selection of around 5,000 construction companies.
Producer prices of industrial goods
The producer price index, which is calculated every month by the Federal Statistical Office, measures the average change in the price of industrial and commercial goods produced and sold domestically (excluding turnover tax) for the respective reporting period compared with the base year. Currently, 1,250 types of goods are used to calculate the index. Their prices are reported by a total of 5,000 enterprises under fixed contractual conditions.
