Consumers in Germany Hit by Oil Price Hike

The increase in oil prices over the past two months has led to German consumers paying more for the goods they purchased in July than in the previous month, according to reports released by the statistics offices of six German states. Consumer prices in Hesse increased 0.2 percent from a month before while Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg, Saxony and Baden-Württemberg also reported that prices increased in the month. Michael Biggs, an economist at Deutsche Bank in London, told Bloomberg News: "The recent increase in oil prices puts pressure on prices, but this also pushes down demand. There's nothing there that constitutes major demand-driven inflation. This isn't going to put pressure on the European Central Bank to raise rates.''