New school year
Expensive back to school – prices for notebooks, fountain pens and satchels are sometimes increasing extremely
Parents not only have to buy special materials when first graders start school, as is the case here in North Rhine-Westphalia. Every new school year brings with it purchases.
© IMAGO / Kirchner Media
Starting school this year is an expensive affair. The price of some materials has risen dramatically – in some cases even faster than the inflation, which is already high.
In Germany the summer holidays are coming to an end, the new school year is approaching, many first graders will start school in these days and weeks. With the start of the new school year, parents often get a long shopping list for school supplies for their children.
Shopping for writing and mining equipment was not cheap in the olden days – but this time inflation is hitting the streets. And sometimes more than the average of the normal cost of living.
The Federal Statistical Office has now published figures on this. Prices for school supplies have risen significantly compared to last year, according to data released by statisticians on Tuesday. They examined the prices this July and compared them with July last year.
The prices for exercise books and drawing pads are rising the most
Exercise books and drawing pads were 13.6 percent more expensive than last summer. This means that prices here have also increased more than consumer prices as a whole, which at the same time rose by 7.5 percent.
The statisticians also have an explanation for the extreme price increases for drawing pads and exercise books: they write that this is likely to be related, among other things, to the ongoing shortage of paper and the rising costs of paper production.
Satchels for the start of school: prices have risen sharply again
Pens and paint boxes, fountain pens and fountain pen cartridges were 5.2 percent more expensive than in July last year, and schoolbags were 4.7 percent more expensive. Although the prices for these did not climb quite as steeply as inflation overall, this does not change the fact that these things were also significantly more expensive than in the summer of last year.
The holidays are coming to an end in many regions of Germany these days, in the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia school started last week; the children in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg still have time until mid-September.
Sources: destiny, Schoolholidays.org, RTL
Watch the video: his school’s dance performance. When the teacher gives the kids time to present their own dance steps, Tripp unpacks his moves – and it goes viral.