The first Christmas products can already be seen in the supermarkets. But for many citizens, the winter will be very hard, economic experts have announced. The costs in almost all industries are increasing immensely. Wages are being eaten up by ever-rising inflation. In an interview with ” t-online “, GfK consumer expert Rolf Bürkl now warns of renewed sudden price increases in the Christmas business.
The prospects are bitter. We already have almost eight percent inflation. “I’m not very optimistic,” says the GfK consumer expert when he looks at the coming months. “Times are very uncertain at the moment, the situation will become more difficult for consumers. Whether the economy will recover and people’s consumption will rise again ultimately depends on energy prices,” Bürkl announced on “t-online”.
And it should get even thicker. The federal government’s measures to relieve the burden on citizens could just fizzle out. The 9-euro ticket and the fuel discount would initially have kept inflation in check to some extent. “These measures expired in September, so inflation should now make a significant leap,” warns the expert.
Bürkl is now demanding direct aid for citizens so that they can survive this severe financial crisis. He considers energy price brakes to be questionable because they would interfere with the market. “The winter will be hard for many Germans,” he says. This will also have a massive impact on the Christmas business. “It will certainly be weaker, trading is in a downward spiral,” is his forecast.
The consequences are fatal, after all the dealers are also struggling with delivery bottlenecks. “So everything that goes in the direction of electronics, computers or cars continues to have massive problems. If a higher demand at Christmas time meets a lower supply, this could also affect prices and thus inflation,” says Bürkl in the “t-online” interview. The fly in the ointment weighs heavily. According to the expert, “there will be no exceptions to price increases”.
Stadtwerke Düsseldorf is currently sending letters about an upcoming gas price increase. But the letters should not help many. Because the cover letter simply contains an extremely complicated formula with which the increase is calculated.
A megawatt hour now costs around 400 euros in Germany. That’s a good three times as much as a year ago. EU-wide we are in the more expensive half, but other countries suffer far more from sometimes lower prices.
