German Inflation Picks Up Fractionally

Inflation in Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, picked up marginally in June, largely as a result of rising oil prices, official data showed on Thursday. The German consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.1 percent in June from the figure for May and was 1.8 percent higher than it had been in June 2004, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. The 12-month rate of change is therefore fractionally faster than the 1.7 percent recorded in May and the 1.6 percent recorded in April. Nevertheless, the final June numbers are slightly lower than a preliminary estimate published at the end of last month, where the cost of living in Germany rose by 0.2 percent month-on-month and by 1.9 percent year-on-year. Preliminary German inflation data are calculated on the basis of consumer price statistics for six so-called indicator states, while final CPI is calculated on the basis of data for all 16 German regional states.