Germany’s ifo Institute for Economic Research expects inflation rates to decrease slightly in the foreseeable future, with the overall rate likely to remain below the 2% mark targeted by the European Central Bank (ECB), ifo’s chief economist said on Thursday. Energy is significantly cheaper for consumers than it was a year ago, Timo Wollmershäuser pointed out. On Thursday, the ifo Institute published data on the latest price expectations of companies in Germany, which showed that fewer companies intended to increase their prices in August than in the previous month. The corresponding index fel…