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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, r ....
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. we had expected at slight decline. that is driven by wages. the dilemma for the ecb and all central banks as they are looking at inflation figures that is telling us what has already happened. they have to take a pretty calculator gamble on what will happen in the future. indeed, looking at inflation is like driving forwards by looking in the rear view mirror. at the same time, we have so little confidence at the moment in our own forecasts of inflation having gotten it wrong, that you just have to look at the current inflation and it has to fall ....