BERLIN—German annual inflation rose more than expected in March as prices of natural gas and mineral oil products soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, preliminary data showed on Wednesday. Consumer prices, harmonized to make them comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries (HICP), rose 7.6 percent on the year after 5.5 percent in February, the Federal Statistics Office said. The national consumer price index (CPI) rose 7.3 percent year on year after an inflation rate of 5.1 percent in February. A similarly high inflation rate in Germany was last recorded in autumn 1981, when mineral oil prices had jumped as a consequence of the first Gulf war, the statistics office said. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the CPI rate to rise to 6.3 percent and the HICP figure to grow to 6.7 percent.