Soaring crude oil prices and energy costs have caused a high inflation level in Germany, which has reached 2.5 percent in the year in September, the Federal Statistics Office said in a statement.
It is the fastest annual increase for more than four years, since May 2001, and substantially more than the 1.9% rate for the year to August.
The German statistics office said the cost of light heating oil had surged by 40% in the past year, while fuel prices had gone up by 17.4%.
Without the inflationary pressure of energy costs, the German consumer price index would have been unchanged from August to September, while the year-on-year figure would have risen by just1.6%, the statisticians said.
Germany is the eurozone's biggest economy, and its economic performance is particularly important to the European Central Bank (ECB) in deciding on its interest rates policy.
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Eurozone Biggest Economy Shattered By High Crude Prices
Soaring crude oil prices and energy costs have caused a high inflation level in Germany