BERLIN, Jan 6 (Reuters) – German inflation slowed more than expected in December, dipping to 2.0% year on year, preliminary data from the federal statistics office showed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast EU-harmonised inflation falling to 2.2% from last month’s 2.6%<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n The inflation rate in Europe’s largest economy is likely to fluctuate around 2% in 2026 – initially slightly below that level and later somewhat above, said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.<\/p>\n “This is good news for the European Central Bank and the German government as it removes one concern from an otherwise long list of economic challenges,” Brzeski said.<\/p>\n The core inflation rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, fell to 2.4% in December from 2.7% in the previous month.<\/p>\n The available regional state data<\/a> shows that the drop in inflation was not only driven by favourable energy base effects but also by falling prices for leisure, clothing and food.<\/p>\n “Price pressure has eased significantly, reflecting the ongoing economic weakness of the German economy,” said Vincent Stamer, senior economist at Commerzbank.<\/p>\n Germany is experiencing a sluggish recovery after two years of contraction. It is expected to have grown by only 0.2% in 2025 as Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spending measures need time to translate into better conditions.<\/p>\n Despite the easing of inflation in December, Stamer added that inflation is not expected to fall further in the new year, as service prices are forecast to rise.<\/p>\n GERMAN INFLATION POINTS TO EURO ZONE SLOWDOWN<\/p>\n The German data come ahead of the euro zone inflation release on Wednesday.<\/p>\n National inflation data released so far suggest that euro zone headline inflation fell below 2% in December and that the core rate edged down, said Franziska Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics.<\/p>\n Inflation in the bloc has hovered around the European Central Bank’s 2% target, boosted by price hikes in the services sector, and is expected to stay there for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n Most analysts expect the ECB to keep its interest rate unchanged in the coming months.<\/p>\n Reporting by Miranda Murray and Friederike Heine; Editing by Madeline Chambers and Hugh Lawson<\/p>\n Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n Maria Martinez is a Reuters correspondent in Berlin covering German economics and the ministry of finance. Maria previously worked at Dow Jones Newswires in Barcelona covering European economics and at Bloomberg, Debtwire and the New York Stock Exchange in New York City. She graduated with a Master of International Affairs at Columbia University as a Fulbright scholar. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN, Jan 6 (Reuters) – German inflation slowed more than expected in December, dipping to 2.0% year on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[127346,138,127148,126056,24828,126133,126146,126147,126144,126130,126160,126143,127688,126155,126134,126158,126148,126131,126138,126153,126151,126163,126075,126074,126139,126149,126162,126132,126142,126159,126157,126136,126150,126156,29871,126770,55314,219,127685,61328,11720,126070,129934,126072,1645,16638,126775,126061,126062,127572,126065,111,125230,139,69,126432,125231,132538,126780,132539,126752,126069],"class_list":["post-220176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-bru","tag-business","tag-ceeu","tag-cen","tag-de","tag-destabx","tag-destafa","tag-destbnx","tag-destc","tag-destcsa","tag-destd","tag-deste","tag-destef-markets-macromatters","tag-destfun","tag-destg","tag-destgns","tag-destgro","tag-destlby","tag-destm","tag-destmtl","tag-desto","tag-destoil","tag-destortao","tag-destoukbsm","tag-destpge","tag-destpsc","tag-destrbn","tag-destreulb","tag-destrnp","tag-destrws","tag-destrwsa","tag-destsof","tag-destu","tag-destucdptest","tag-ecb","tag-eci","tag-eco","tag-economy","tag-efmarkets-macromatters","tag-emea","tag-eu","tag-europ","tag-ez","tag-ezc","tag-fin","tag-gen","tag-infl","tag-int","tag-intag","tag-ipr","tag-mce","tag-new-zealand","tag-news1","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plcy","tag-pol","tag-rulesworld-germany","tag-topcmb","tag-topicmarkets-europe-ecb","tag-topnws","tag-weu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}