The rise in prices at gas stations seems to know no end.

On Thursday, the daily average price for diesel was EUR 2.329 per liter, according to the Clever Tanken internet portal.

Super E10 cost an average of 2.203 euros per liter.

The Ukraine war seems to be driving prices higher and higher.

While it's fair to say that compared to the horrors of war, the price of gasoline is a secondary concern.

Nevertheless, the development is remarkable.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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The price of crude oil was recently no longer quite at the highs from the beginning of the week and was temporarily quoted at around 112 dollars per barrel (159 liters) on Friday.

Petrol for the equivalent of five Deutschmarks

At some gas stations and at some times of the day, the price of diesel is well above the average.

The city of Constance, for example, recorded a daily average of EUR 2.445 per liter.

A few days ago, the economist Justus Haucap brought up the possibility of petrol prices of around EUR 2.50 per liter.

Some now even expect 3 euros per liter soon.

The 2.50 euro mark has a certain symbolic value: in the 1990s, the Green Party demanded that petrol should cost five deutschmarks for environmental reasons - so that would be around the same amount.

Heating oil, on the other hand, was a little cheaper on Friday than it was in the middle of the week: Instead of more than 200 euros for 100 liters, you now paid 186 euros, as reported by the Heizoel24 Internet portal, to which 500 oil traders report their prices.

Energy continues to be the main driver of the high inflation rate

Meanwhile, the Federal Statistical Office confirmed its first estimate for the February inflation rate for Germany on Friday.

According to the national calculation method, the rate was 5.1 percent.

According to the European calculation method of the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), the rate was even 5.5 percent.

The most important drivers were energy prices: within a year, fuel prices rose by 25.8 percent, heating oil by 52.6 percent, natural gas by 35.7 percent and electricity by 13 percent.

Food became 5.3 percent more expensive.

Consumers even had to pay 11 percent more for fresh vegetables.

Dairy products and butter increased in price by 6.7 percent.

Plants and flowers (up 8.7 percent), vehicles (up 7.8 percent) and coffee products (up 6.7 percent) also became noticeably more expensive.

Overall, consumer goods rose by an impressive 10.5 percent and durable goods by 3 percent.

Is inflation possibly rising to 10 percent?

What some economists are now expecting sounds very worrying.

The President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, believes that inflation of up to ten percent is possible if the war escalates.

"There will probably be inflation rates of well over five percent in the current year," he told the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".

"In the event of an escalation of the war and more and more new sanctions, it can even go towards ten percent."