Inflation rises to 3.3 per cent in September — energy drives it, merchants pay twice
According to provisional data from the Federal Statistical Office, consumer prices in Germany in September 2026 were 3.3 per cent higher than a year earlier, after 2.9 per cent in August. Energy rose by 14.9 per cent, core inflation stayed at 2.4 per cent. For merchants, operating costs and percentage-based payment fees are rising at the same time.
What happened
On 30 September 2026 the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) published the provisional inflation rate for September: plus 3.3 per cent on the same month a year earlier, after 2.9 per cent in August, 2.8 per cent in July and 2.3 per cent in June. Compared with August, prices rose by 0.6 per cent. The driver is energy at plus 14.9 per cent. Food was only 0.4 per cent above the previous year, goods overall 3.8 per cent, services 2.7 per cent. Core inflation excluding food and energy stayed at 2.4 per cent. Final figures follow on 13 October 2026.
Who is affected
Energy-intensive businesses first: hospitality, bakeries, food retail with refrigeration, petrol stations. Indirectly every merchant whose customers spend more on electricity, heating and fuel and therefore save elsewhere.
Assessment
Merchants feel inflation from two sides. Their own energy bill goes up, and at the same time customers have less room for everything else. On 25 September the NIM consumer climate reported a propensity to save as high as last seen in the 2008 financial crisis, naming energy prices as the main reason. The Destatis figures confirm exactly this driver. Anyone raising prices now may sell fewer items at higher basket sizes.
On top of that comes an effect hardly anyone talks about. If you pay a percentage for card payments, you automatically pay more euros per payment when prices rise, even though nothing in your terms has changed. The share of turnover stays the same, the amount on the statement grows. That was the point of my commentary on rising payment costs: more volume ought to push the price per payment down, not up. In an autumn with 3.3 per cent inflation, doing the maths pays off twice.
What to do now
- Put the last three statements from your payment network operator (Netzbetreiber) side by side and compare payment costs in euros per month, not just in per cent.
- Check whether a blended model with a fixed amount in cents per payment would be cheaper than a pure percentage for your own basket sizes.
- Plan price increases carefully: energy is rising, food hardly at all — customers compare closely.