Germany's inflation rate lowers to 6.1% in May

The percentage of inflation in Germany went down from 7.2% in April 2023 to 6.1% in May. This marks the lowest level of inflation in 14 months.

The number is still higher than what the European Central Bank aims for, which is around 2%.

The price level of goods and services, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, dropped by 0.10% in May compared to the previous month.

The increase in energy costs slowed down significantly, with a rise of only 2.6%. This was caused mostly by the fact that last year's prices were very high, particularly for natural gas (which went up by 33.8% compared to only 25.6% this year), firewood and wood pellets (which increased by 29.8% last year, but only by 23.8% this year), electricity (which rose by 15.4% last year and only 12.7% this year), and district heating (which went up by 12.3% last year and 11.4% this year).

On the other hand, the expenses for heating oil and motor fuels decreased by 30.5% and 14.2% respectively. Meanwhile, there was a minor surge of 14.9% in food prices, in comparison to the earlier 17.2% increase.

The rate of inflation for services decreased slightly from 4.7% to 4.5%. Rent, which had grown 2% in April, only increased by 1.9% this month.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) such as EWG, DBGR, FGM, and DXGE are investments that are traded on stock exchanges just like individual stocks. These ETFs are designed to track the performance of a particular market index such as the German DAX or the MSCI Germany. This means that an investor can purchase shares of an ETF and gain exposure to a broad range of stocks within that index. ETFs are a popular investment option for those who want to diversify their portfolio without owning individual stocks. They also provide a lower cost alternative to traditional mutual funds with lower expense ratios and taxes.

The editor wants to inform readers that the headline in the previous version of this story had an incorrect number.