i m karishma vaswani. we begin with the banking turmoil in the us. shares of several regional banks have closed in the red on monday. it signals concern about the health of the sector, following the collapse of first republic and its acquisition byjp morgan chase. the wall street giant said it would pay $10.6 billion dollars to the federal insurance deposit corp, after officials shut down the smaller bank. first republic had been under pressure since last month, when the collapse of two other us lenders sparked fears about the state of the banking system. meanwhile, the managing director of the international monetary fund kristalina georgieva says she expects more weaknesses to be exposed in the banking sector. so just how vulnerable is it? let s ask the chief global investment officer of oreana financial, isaac poole. i think there is a real risk of that. this is probably not the end of bank failures. we are seeing these problems in the smaller, regional, medium sized banks,
that s the first increase after five consecutive months of declines. consumer prices edged up from 6.9% in march, which could further encourage the european central bank to raise interest rates on thursday. joining me now is christian schulz, deputy chief european economist at citi bank. lovely to see you. so, the number is on the up, no great surprise considering what we have seen elsewhere, but the big question is how the central bank response. the ecb has made some progress, i guess, the base rate was in double digits at the end of last year, we are now down to 7%. no further progress in april, it seems. looking at the details, there are some positives. food inflation is down, it had been rising and rising. hopefully that is a trend that will continue. also called goods inflation, that is also decreasing for the first time. the bad news is, for the ecb, that services inflation keeps rising and thatis services inflation keeps rising and that is the surprise in this, really.
the royal family have been attending st george s chapel for the first now it s time for click. this week we ve plenty of stomach to whet your appetite. we are in singapore to taste the future, with the starter of pink gold, followed by your main course. this is my first ever taste of cultivated chicken. there is a special 50th birthday treat as we chatted a man who made the first mobile phone call. and for dessert, an internet legend tells us what it was like to be part of the twitter takeover. i really did get to see what was happening, right in the thick of it. it s hot, it s bustling, it s intense. welcome to singapore. i have come to a city state that is home to more than 5 million people and atjust 50 kilometres wide and less than 140 kilometres from the equator, this place feels like it is at the centre of everything. east meets west here, nature meets future. this is a thriving financial hub that seems to be doing pretty well for itself. when you think of singapore you
to the federal insurance deposit corp, after officials shut down the smaller bank. first republic had been under pressure since last month, when the collapse of two other us lenders sparked fears about the state of the banking system. meanwhile, the managing director of the international monetary fund kristalina georgieva says she expects more weaknesses to be exposed in the banking sector. earlier, i spoke to oreana financial s chief global investment officer, isaac poole, who told me the turmoil will not end with the collapse of first republic. i think there is a real risk of that. this is probably not the end of bank failures. we are seeing these problems in the smaller, regional, medium sized banks, really exposed to higher interest rates. we are going to see another interest hike from the fed which might add extra pressure on depositors and so forth. as we look out, there is a real risk that initially what was a bank specific problem becomes a wider problem for the syste