German inflation in January halts rally at 4.9 pct

BERLIN, Feb 1 (Xinhua/APP) –:The national consumer price index (CPI) in Germany in January rose by 4.9 percent on an annual basis, easing from 5.3 percent in December, according to preliminary data published by the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Monday.

The figure is the first drop after an increase for six months in a row, noted Destatis.

“Crisis-related effects such as delivery bottlenecks and significant price increases at upstream stages in the economic process as well as in energy prices continue to have an impact,” Destatis said, citing that “the inflation rate will remain high.”

While prices for food and services rose moderately at three percent and five percent, respectively, price increases of energy products remained particularly high at 20.5 percent, according to Destatis.

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