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Vicky Pryce: business correspondent on inflation figures going up across Europe · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. Right now,
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  Speaker 1: let's talk business with our correspondent, Vicki Price. Hello, Vicki.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Inflation has risen sharply in Europe.
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  Speaker 2: I'm afraid so. I think we were expecting it to
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  Speaker 2: happen at some point, given all the energy price increases
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  Speaker 2: that we've all been experiencing. And then finally, inflation is
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  Speaker 2: zooming up. It's now gone up to 3.8% in the
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  Speaker 2: eurozone from 3.2%. So that's quite a jump. And the
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  Speaker 2: expectation is it's going to be going up even further
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  Speaker 2: in the next few months. So we're all going to
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  Speaker 2: be worrying about interest rates again, whether they will be
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  Speaker 2: going up or not in the next meetings that they have.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and politicians are going to be talking about the
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  Speaker 1: cost of living. And we'll be talking about this very
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  Speaker 1: shortly here on this show. Meanwhile, there are riots over
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  Speaker 1: the high rents that are being paid in Spain.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's all linked. If you're paying quite a lot
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  Speaker 2: to borrow, and of course the housing market itself is
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  Speaker 2: suffering in a number of places, but nevertheless, what is
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  Speaker 2: still going on is that people, instead of buying, are
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  Speaker 2: looking to rent, and rental costs are going up very significantly.
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  Speaker 2: They are simply not affordable in many cities in particular,
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  Speaker 2: which also get loads of tourists who all come and buy.
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  Speaker 2: and to go for airbnb which really means that some
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  Speaker 2: of those flats that would have been available are not
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  Speaker 2: prices are being pushed up and and there are indeed
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  Speaker 2: riots in in madrid in particular because there have been
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  Speaker 2: some evictions of people whose houses have been bought by
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  Speaker 2: hedge funds or venture capital funds or private sector entities
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  Speaker 2: which are trebling sometimes quadrupling and even more the rents
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  Speaker 2: that they were charging so there's a real real issue
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  Speaker 2: and And I think it's spreading across Europe because you're
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  Speaker 2: seeing some countries in particular. I mean, Portugal is very
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  Speaker 2: bad in terms of the affordability of rents, but so
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  Speaker 2: is the Netherlands. So we're looking at richer places which
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  Speaker 2: are also suffering from this. And you see this spreading across.
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  Speaker 2: And we've also got, of course, riots in France because
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  Speaker 2: The students and the population at large, I think, feels
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  Speaker 2: that not enough is being spent on public services, despite
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  Speaker 2: the fact that France spends a lot more as a
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  Speaker 2: percentage of GDP by the public sector and raises more taxes.
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  Speaker 2: So there is something going on. I think it all
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  Speaker 2: is linked to exactly what you said at the beginning,
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  Speaker 2: which is the cost of living. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: All right. Meanwhile, Europe has agreed to release more crude
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  Speaker 1: and refined strategic stocks to release pressure on diesel prices.
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  Speaker 1: This is because, of course, Donald Trump's diesel export ban.
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  Speaker 1: What are they doing?
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  Speaker 2: Well, he hasn't actually instituted the export ban. He was
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  Speaker 2: threatening it. And it's worth remembering that the UK in particular,
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  Speaker 2: but also Europe, depend to a very considerable extent on
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  Speaker 2: diesel exports now from the US, now that there aren't
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  Speaker 2: exports coming from russia in fact russia itself has put
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  Speaker 2: its own ban since july refineries have been hit because
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  Speaker 2: of the war in the middle east so what you've
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  Speaker 2: got is a real shortage and the u.s is using
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  Speaker 2: the threat as a weapon if you like says you
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  Speaker 2: guys in europe have quite a lot of stocks release
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  Speaker 2: those and bring prices down and of course there is
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  Speaker 2: political impetus in europe as well to do so otherwise
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  Speaker 2: it's exactly the stuff we've been talking about which is
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  Speaker 2: that cost of living issues are leading to quite a
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  Speaker 2: lot of politics coming to the boil.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's a battle on so many fronts. And
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  Speaker 1: I thank you for your time today. That is Vicky Price.