October 12, 2007 (LPAC)--Rather than continuing with its "the upswing is here" propaganda, the government of Germany should take a look into the latest reports coming from the Federal Office of Statistics, which tell a quite different story. For example, private insolvencies jumped up by 50 (!) percent in 2006 (against 2005), from 68,000 to 92,000. Furthermore, the number of welfare recipients increased by 8 percent-, which translates into a quarter million Germans that are added to the welfare rolls.

Also revealing about the state of the real economy, about which the government is in hysterical denial, is the development of consumer price inflation, especially of food products: a preliminary review of the first three quarters of 2007 done by the Office of Statistics notes an alarming inflation trend, especially during quarters two and three. Milk and milk products had a considerable increase of prices by 17 percent, since February, with 2.7 percent in June, 2.1 in July and in August 5.0. Feed grains, seeds, and cereals, had prices go up by 6.8 percent in July, by 15.1 in August, by yet another 14.4 percent in September. Food prices are expected to increase by another 50 percent during the coming 12 months, experts forecast. Year-on-year, September featured an increase by 62.9 percent, for cereals, seeds and feed grains; livestock and farming products increased by 33.8 percent; milk, milk products, eggs and vegetable oil up 18.8 percent.

Especially against the historic background of Weimar 1923 inflation in Germany, warnings against inflation, notably yesterday also by the central bank governor, deserve special attention.