let s start in the us where some of the worlds leading money managers are warning the collapse of another american bank could lead to a credit crunch and an economic slowdown. constrained lending as a result of stricter banking regulation could stifle credit to the us economy at a critical time. we ll get an expert view on this in a moment but first here s my colleague samira hussain on the collapse of first republic. as of monday, first republic customers turning up at their bank are in fact customers ofjp morgan chase. the signs above will soon change. first republic had been under pressure since the collapse of silicon valley bank and signature bank two months earlier. last week, first republic revealed deposited had removed $100 million in the space of a few months. customers feared their money was not safe. investors became convinced that it too was about to fail. riding to the rescue of america s distressed financial system, the boss of america s biggest bank, jamie dim
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.
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
Australia's Energy Market Operator says there's an increased risk of power outages in Victoria and New South Wales next summer because transmission projects to accommodate renewable energy aren't being approved and built quickly enough.