The increase in inflation is mainly due to the trend in energy prices. Energy prices (electricity, gas and district heating) further increased in September, he reports Central Statistical Office (CBS) this morning.
Energy was 200% more expensive in September than in the same month last year. In August, the year-on-year increase was 151%. Inflation compared to the same month of 2021 was therefore 12%.
Even without energy prices
But even ignoring the sharp rise in energy and fuel prices, inflation rose in September. This is apparent from the figure calculated by Statistics Netherlands, which does not include the evolution of gas, electricity, district heating and fuel prices.
In September, consumer goods and services, excluding energy and fuels, were 6.5% more expensive than in the same month last year. In August, the annual price increase was 6.0%.
European figure
Today’s figure differs from inflation above 17 percent according to the European calculation method, released last week. We explain in the following section where this difference comes from and why there are some caveats to today’s figure.
Insufficient wage increase
Where life gets more and more expensive month after month, Wages are still overdue. On average, wages increased by 3.4 per cent in collective bargaining agreements concluded in July, August and September.
Despite this sharp increase, the wage trend of the collective bargaining agreement is well below the trend in consumer prices. Calculated over the entire third quarter, it was 12.3% more than the previous year.
In the data available for collectively negotiated wages and the consumer price index, which date back to 1973, it has never happened before that the development of collectively negotiated wages has lagged so far behind inflation.
