(Bloomberg) -- Germany pushed back against Italian criticism that last-minute efforts to replenish natural gas inventories are driving up prices across Europe.“We firmly reject the accusation that the procurement and storage of natural gas, for example through SEFE, which is one of the Italian accusations, that this would drive up European gas prices,” Economy ministry spokeswoman Susanne Ungrad said at a press conference Friday.The response follows comments from Alessandro Noce, a senior official at Italy’s energy ministry, who blamed recent German stockpiling efforts for helping push benchmark gas prices above €100 a megawatt-hour this week.