Did prices rise in 2007?

[Graham]

Ever since the Euro was introduced, people in Germany have claimed that everything is more expensive. This came to be symbolised by the term “Teuro” and just after the changeover TV shows went looking for restaurants and shops that had simply changed the currency sign and not the price - effectively doubling the amount to be paid.

Others (including one of my favourite stands at the Frankfurt Christmas Market) showed their prices in both currencies, to prove that they had not used the opportunity to put the prices up.

Last week, the Tagesschau news reported that although prices for food have gone up, the average wage has risen even more - meaning that in real terms food as got cheaper for most people.

Most importantly, the price of food items has risen in 2007 by 5.8%, with some items such as butter and milk going up by 46% and 28% respectively.

But it is an interesting comparison, that in 1980 a manual labourer had to work 21 minutes on average to earn enough for 250g of butter, but in 2007 this was down to 4 minutes.

So put quite simply - yes, we had to spend more, but we also earned more. It wasn’t just our imagination after all!

Are you living in Germany? Did you notice the price rises?
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Graham Tappenden

[Graham]

Parking charges may or may not have risen in 2007, but they did in 2008!

I went into Oberursel yesterday and had to pay 1,50EUR per hour instead of 1,00EUR!
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Graham Tappenden

[Graham]

Not just the price of food went up last year, travelling by train became more expensive from the middle of December, as the Tagesschau news reported.

The prices for tickets, bahncards and reservations rose, even the price of the “Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket” went up to 35EUR.

Deutsche Bahn have, however, added new destinations for the fast ICE trains, which may well be very useful for people wanting to travel around Europe, with the new connections to Paris, Vienna and Copenhagen.

People living in Germany who have a Bahncard and who travel around Europe may be able to make use of the RailPlus option - until now an optional (charged) extra, that according to the Tagesschau article is now included in the price of the Bahncard 50.

All these prices rises may not go down too well with travellers, who at the moment are suffering at the hands of the train drivers’ strikes that took place in the autumn of last year and may well be repeated in the early part of 2008 if talks break down again.

Do you travel by train? Have the prices of your tickets been affected?
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Graham Tappenden

[Graham]

Every year I have the feeling that our electricity bill has gone up.

The electricity company estimates at the beginning of the year how much you are going to use, and then charges you monthly based on this estimate. At the end of the year they either refund or charge you the difference to your actual usage.

Normally they estimate quite well, but I still end up paying a difference at the end of the year because the price of the electricity itself has gone up.

Now the Tagesschau news has reported that prices have indeed gone up - by 50% in the last 7 years.

It seems to me that the electricity companies are making huge profits, and still passing on price rises, eg. in the oil price, to their customers. My supplier even has a bonus card scheme where you can get discounted entry to theme parks etc.

I don’t want discounts! I just want to pay a reasonable price for my electricity without the big shock at the end of each year!

Has your electricity bill gone up?
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Graham Tappenden

[Graham]

Whilst I may now be filling up with bio-ethanol, I am still interested in the price of normal (95 octane) petrol for my wife’s car. And having just written 3 blog entries about the prices of things going up, I went back through the log book to see if this was true of petrol as well.

We tend to see the price of petrol as something that goes up and down, although more up than down, especially in the summer months.

Actually, it started the year at 1,239EUR/litre and finished off at 1,369EUR/litre - no question about that being a price increase then.

But in-between it reached 1,419EUR/litre (or even more, but we didn’t fill up when it did!) in May, returning to 1,289EUR/litre in August. So even if there was an overall increase, it did go back and forth during the year.

How we long for the Summer of 2003 when we first bought the car, and paid as little as 1,034EUR/litre!
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Graham Tappenden