Germany’s import prices decreased by 2.3% year-on-year in January 2026, unchanged from December. This marked the sharpest annual decline since March 2024, driven largely by a substantial drop in energy costs (-21.1%), reflecting lower prices for crude oil (-24.5%), natural gas (-23.1%), and petroleum products (-16.8%). Even excluding energy, import prices still edged down by 0.1% in January.
Prices for agricultural goods fell by 6.5%, mainly due to steep declines in raw cocoa (-46.4%), live pigs (-26.5%), and grains (-8.2%). Consumer goods prices were down 2.7% overall, with durable goods falling 2.5% and non-durable goods decreasing 2.7%.
By contrast, prices for intermediate goods rose by 2.8%, driven in particular by significant increases in precious metals and their semi-finished products (65.2%), as well as non-ferrous metals and their semi-finished products (25.9%).
On a month-on-month basis, import prices rose by 1.1% in January, surpassing market expectations of a 0.6% increase and rebounding from a 0.1% decline in December.
