Inflation in Austria accelerated to 4.3 percent in November. This was announced by Statistics Austria yesterday, confirming the flash estimate from the beginning of the month reported by OÖN.
“The further rise in fuel and energy prices drove inflation in November 2021 to the highest level in almost 30 years,” said Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas, according to the announcement. Inflation is more than twice as high as the target value of the European Central Bank (ECB). Without increases in fuel and household energy prices, inflation would have been 2.4 percent.
The inflation is likely to accelerate further in the next few months. The economic researchers at Wifo expect the peak at five percent in January 2022. In the whole of 2022, the price level should rise by 3.3 percent, to which the CO2 pricing that will apply from July 2022 according to Wifo calculations will contribute a good 0.1 percentage points. An inflation rate of 2.25 percent is expected in Austria for 2023.
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The Wifo economists see several reasons for the sharp rise in gas prices in European wholesaling. The cold winter of 2020/21 led to stronger demand, and at the same time the electricity producers also needed more gas because the offshore wind turbines in particular were able to deliver less electricity than expected.
As China replaced old coal-fired power plants with gas-fired power plants, liquefied natural gas also became more expensive. The supply could not keep pace with the higher demand because, for example, the British North Sea gas fields are exhausted and Norwegian and Russian production facilities have been out of operation for several months. The gas producers delivered the agreed quantities, but could not react quickly enough to the increased demand. Because more expensive gas had to be used to generate electricity, the electricity price rose sharply as a result.
The price of oil, which was extremely low at the start of the pandemic, rose to $ 84 a barrel from mid-May 2020 to October 2021. For the next two years, Wifo expects an annual average price of 66 dollars.
Consumer price
October Index, Base 2020 = 100
November 2021 104,8
October 2021 104.1
September 2021 103,5
Rate of increase: 4.3 percent
VPI 15 (2015 = 100) 113,4
VPI 10 (2010 = 100) 125,6
VPI 05 (2005 = 100) 137,5
VPI 00 (2000 = 100) 152,0
VPI 96 (1996 = 100) 159,9
VPI 86 (1986 = 100) 209,1
VPI 76 (1976 = 100) 325,0
VPI 66 (1966 = 100) 570,4
Source: Nachrichten
