Competing with the U.K. economy for terrible inflation news, the data issued today by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) of Germany’s Interior Ministry are, if one believes various bank analysts, causing stock markets to drop internationally. According to the ministry’s figures, there was zero economic growth in the second quarter, while producer prices were 37.2% higher than in the second quarter of 2021, another jump from the 32-33% producer-price inflation recorded in the previous two months.
The year-to-year growth in producer prices for energy (prices to business and industry) reached 105%; for natural gas, 163.8%; and for the universal machine tool electricity, a catastrophic 125.4%. These are economically impossible for businesses to bear, even by passing on part of the increases to households and consumers.
