In the German economy, the wave of price increases continues to recede. According to the monthly Germany-wide company survey by the Ifo Institute, significantly fewer companies want to raise their prices in the next three months than last February. The index of price expectations fell in February for the fifth time in a row to 29.1 points, as the Munich economic researchers announced on Wednesday.

The bad news for consumers: many retailers are still planning price increases. In the food and beverages sector, for example, according to the Ifo survey, it is still more than three quarters (77.2 balance points). The majority of tour operators (63.2) or restaurateurs (52.7) also want to make their services more expensive, even if the index has also fallen in both sectors.

By contrast, according to the Ifo, the wave of price increases in construction has largely subsided. In the construction industry, very few companies on average want to pass on increased purchase prices to their customers, and the index fell to 18.7 points, the lowest value since April 2021.

"Companies have already passed on a large part of the increased costs to their customers, while at the same time demand is falling in almost all sectors of the economy," summed up Ifo economics boss Timo Wollmershäuser. "This should ease inflationary pressures in the coming months."