Consumer prices in three of Germany's big western states rose more strongly than expected, lifted by tobacco and holiday prices, data showed today.
Consumer prices in the industrial state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the sixth state to release monthly data, rose by 0.8 per cent month-on-month in December and were up by 1.8 per cent year-on-year.
Earlier Baden-Wuerttemberg reported a 0.9 per cent month-on-month rise and a 2.1 per cent year-on-year rise, while Hesse reported a monthly rise of 1 per cent and a 1.6 per cent annual rise.
In each state, annual inflation rates were 0.1 or 0.2 percentage points higher than in November. The states were the last to report before the federal statistics office reports preliminary December consumer price data for the whole country later today.
The stronger-than-expected rises, combined with data from the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony, and the rich southern state of Bavaria earlier in the week, suggest a likely surprise jump in the figure for the whole of Germany.
A strong rise in inflation in Germany, Europe's largest economy, could then point to an upside surprise in euro zone inflation data for December, due to be released on January 4th.