Germans Shouldn’t Overreact to 6% Inflation
The Bundesbank ups its inflation estimates for November yet again. Neither Berlin nor Frankfurt should panic yet.
Weidmann to Scholz: By the way, I’m outta here.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergJust as Olaf Scholz, Germany’s finance minister, is getting close to becoming chancellor of a new government, all sorts of numbers are going the wrong way in his country. One is the rate of coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. Another is that historic bugaboo of the German psyche: inflation.
It’s been clear for months that inflation in the euro area is accelerating this year, and going up even faster in its largest economy than in most other parts of the currency union. Last month, German prices were 4.6% higher than a year earlier. Now the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, has increased its forecast for November to a spike of about 6%.