Berlin, Mar 12 (IANS): The national consumer price index (CPI) in Germany in February rose by 5.1 per cent on an annual basis, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said.

In January, inflation declined for the first time in six months and hit 4.9 per cent and the exceeding 5 per cent mark in February was influenced by "delivery bottlenecks and significant price increases at upstream stages in the economic process", Xinhua news agency quoted Destatis as saying.

Due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were "increasingly superimposed by uncertainties", said Georg Thiel, president of Destatis.

"The current price increases, especially for mineral oil products, are not yet reflected in the results for February 2022," he said.

Prices for energy products rose by 22.5 per cent in February, significantly more than overall inflation, according to Destatis.

While fuel prices increased by 25.8 per cent, the rates of for light heating oil and natural gas even jumped 52.6 per cent and 35.7 per cent, respectively.

The increases in energy prices had a "massive effect on the inflation rate", Destatis noted.

Excluding energy prices, the inflation rate in February 2022 would have only risen 3.3 per cent year-on-year.

Food prices increased by 5.3 per cent, with fresh vegetables in particular becoming more expensive, up 11.0 per cent.

At the same time, prices for vehicles also increased by 7.8 per cent, according to Destatis.