Draghi's German Problem May Fizzle as ECB Sticks to Its Plan
- Inflation rate drops most since 2013 in tandem with energy
- Euro zone data predicted to slow for first month in 11
Mario Draghi.
Photographer: Alex Kraus/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Mario Draghi’s German difficulty may be melting away with the change of seasons.
The European Central Bank president had barely begun the New Year when a winter spike in consumer prices provoked resurgent calls in Europe’s biggest economy for a halt to his institution’s extraordinary stimulus. Now that spring is in the air, the surge has reversed with the biggest drop in Germany’s inflation rate since 2013, implying that one-off effects from energy have been masking underlying weakness -- just as Draghi and his colleagues had predicted.