President Vladimir Putin’s invasion has sapped euro-area confidence and sent consumer-price expectations to their highest level since records began in 1985.In Spain, inflation surged by almost 10% in March — the most in nearly four decades — while it also topped expectations in Germany. In the continent’s biggest economy, advisers to Chancellor Olaf Scholz slashed the growth outlook and said there could be a contraction if natural gas supplies are shut off.
Slovakia’s Peter Kazimir on Wednesday joined a growing group of policy makers saying a rate increase in 2022 is possible. Estonia’s Madis Muller said an increase is “likely,” if not definite. Elsewhere, Ireland’s Gabriel Makhlouf said that while monetary policy won’t be normalized rapidly, the ECB will take whatever actions are needed to achieve price stability. Belgian central bank chief Pierre Wunsch also said he favored a gradual approach.
They’ve already arrived in Lithuania, where a preliminary reading indicated that prices shot up by 15.6% this month.