Extraordinarily expensive energy also pushed up prices for commercial products in April. The producers charged their customers 33.5 percent higher prices than a year earlier, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on Friday. That was the highest annual increase since the survey began in 1949. The rate of change was 30.9 percent in March and 25.9 percent in February. Compared to March, prices in April rose by 2.8 percent.

Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the highest increases were still in energy sources, which were 87.3 percent more expensive than a year ago. Power plants had to pay four times as much (307 percent) for natural gas as in April 2021.

Natural gas became 260 percent more expensive for industrial customers and 170 percent for resellers. Excluding energy, producer prices rose by 16.3 percent.

Intermediate goods such as metals and wood increased by 26 percent year-on-year, consumer goods such as food were 13.2 percent more expensive at the producer level than a year earlier.