Rising gas prices and inflation are putting pressure on consumers

New customer prices for gas reflect wholesale prices particularly quickly and have risen by over a third since February, said Storck. »Existing customer tariffs react more slowly to price developments, but will also rise sooner or later. At the current price level, price increases of between ten and 20 percent are possible at the turn of the year.

Germany dependent on imports

Malte Küper, energy expert at the German Economic Institute (IW), told the newspaper that Germany is "particularly vulnerable to price shocks because its economy is more dependent on natural gas than that of many other countries." In addition, Germany and the EU are “almost entirely dependent on gas imports.”

The wholesale price in Europe has risen to its highest in more than three and a half years following mutual attacks by the US and Iran this week. Consumers also feel this at the gas station. The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, prepared people in the euro area for further inflation this week. »In our current forecasts, inflation will continue to rise until the end of '26. So it will get worse before it gets better, but it will get better," Lagarde told ZDF.

In Germany, energy prices drove inflation to 2.9 percent in August; economic researchers widely expect it to be three percent by 2027. In relation to the euro area, inflation was already at 3.3 percent in August - well above the ECB's inflation target of two percent. In response, the central bank raised the deposit interest rate, which is important for savers and banks, to 2.5 percent on Thursday. What also resonates in Lagard's words on ZDF: inflation could at least decline somewhat in the medium term.