Ordinary Ledger: food up 0.4%, energy up 12.2%, diesel 20 cents over petrol

German consumer prices rose 2.8% on the year in October, Destatis said on Friday, down from 3.3% in September¹. Month on month they fell 0.2%¹. That is the line the news bulletins read out. The household ledger sits in the lines below it.

The kitchen. Food rose just 0.4% on the year, the same as in September; in August it was 0.1%¹. Food carries a weight of about 105 in every 1,000 euros of the index basket¹. For most households, the weekly shop is not where this year’s pressure is.

The tank and the boiler. Household energy and fuels rose 12.2% on the year, after 14.9% in September¹. That line weighs about 74 in every 1,000 euros¹. Desk arithmetic: energy weighs a little less than food, yet its 12.2% rise is about thirty times food’s 0.4%. Weighted, energy adds roughly 0.9 points to the headline and food about 0.04.

The pump, this week. ADAC’s latest weekly comparison found that the two fuels are moving apart². Super E10 fell 2.6 cents in a week to a national average of €2.084 a litre; diesel rose 3.4 cents to €2.289². Diesel now costs over 20 cents more than E10². The club blames dearer crude, a tight international diesel market and rising demand for heating oil as the colder season begins². It also notes that petrol fell even as oil rose, which suggests there was room to cut².

What you can do with that. ADAC’s own advice is dull and useful: fill up shortly before noon, when prices are lowest in the day, and compare the more than 14,000 stations in its app². Desk arithmetic: on a 50-litre diesel fill, the 20.5-cent gap to E10 is €10.25, and the week’s 3.4-cent rise is €1.70. The headline rate fell this month. Whether your rate fell depends on whether you drive a diesel and heat with oil.