BERLIN, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- German consumer price was up by 2.1 percent in December 2012 over the same period of 2011, the first increase in inflation rate since August last year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Tuesday.
Destatis said in a statement that food and energy price, which rose 4.8 and 2.5 percent respectively, contributed to the year-on-year increase of consumer price in December.
Not considering energy prices, the rate of price increase in December 2012 was 1.9 percent.
For the whole year of 2012, inflation rate measured by consumer price index amounted to 2.0 percent, compared with 2.3 percent in 2011. In both 2010 and 2009, however, consumer prices rose by only 1.1 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.
The Wiesbaden-based Destatis attributed the inflation in 2012 to "above-average price rises" of energy products. In 2012, energy price rose by 5.7 percent.
The harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) for Germany, calculated using the European Central Bank's inflation yardstick, rose by 2.1 percent in 2012 from the previous year, slightly higher than the ECB's inflation benchmark of 2.0 percent over the medium term. In December 2012, the HICP was up by 2.0 percent year on year.
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