4.2 percent:

Inflation continues to fall, rents far too high

(Bild: lenblr - stock.adobe.com)

Although inflation is falling in this country, we cannot keep up with our German neighbors. In addition, there is increasing criticism of the high rents - because they have risen "drastically". Inflation in the eurozone continues to ebb and amounted to 2.4 percent in March.

According to a flash estimate by Statistics Austria, inflation stood at 4.2 percent in March. This almost corresponds to the previous month's figure of plus 4.3% in February, but is well below the inflation rate of 9.2% in March 2023.

In Germany, the price increase for March was 2.2%, in France 2.4%. Prices in the restaurant and hotel industry in Germany have not risen as sharply, but electricity and fuel prices are no longer having a dampening effect on prices.

Annual inflation will halve
Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) commented on the figures today: "This confirms what experts have been predicting: Annual inflation in 2024 will halve compared to the previous year. Inflation will therefore fall continuously."

Rent control in other countries
The trade union-affiliated Momentum Institute today referred to a country comparison of rental costs, according to which these have risen "drastically" in Austria. "Other countries are keeping rents affordable thanks to rent controls."

In Portugal, for example, rents have only increased by 9.5 percent since 2021, more than 5 percentage points less than here in the least expensive rental segment, even though price brakes will no longer apply in Portugal in 2024. In Spain, they have only risen by 7.2 percent, in France by 9.8 percent, the institute calculates.

Inflation in the eurozone eased further
Inflation in the eurozone continued its surprisingly marked retreat at the end of winter. Consumer prices in the 20-country community rose by just 2.4 percent in March compared to the same month last year, according to an initial estimate by the EU statistics office Eurostat on Wednesday. Economists, however, had expected an inflation rate of 2.6 percent, the same as in February.

This brings the European Central Bank's (ECB) target of an inflation rate of two percent, which it considers to be the optimum level for the economy in the currency area, closer.