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Vicky Pryce: business correspondent on inflation figures going up across Europe · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Right now, 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.
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  Speaker 1: That they have. Yes, and politicians are going to be
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  Speaker 1: talking about the cost of living. And we'll be talking
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  Speaker 1: about this very shortly here on this show. Meanwhile, there
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  Speaker 1: are riots over the high rents that are being paid
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  Speaker 1: 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 sort of richer
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  Speaker 2: places which are also suffering from this. And you see
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  Speaker 2: this spreading across. And we've also got, of course, riots
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  Speaker 2: in France because The students and the population at large,
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  Speaker 2: I think, feels that not enough is being spent on
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  Speaker 2: public services, despite the fact that France spends a lot
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  Speaker 2: more as a percentage of GDP by the public sector
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  Speaker 2: and raises more taxes. So there is something going on.
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  Speaker 2: I think it all is linked to exactly what you
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  Speaker 2: said at the beginning, 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 the refineries have been hit
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  Speaker 2: because of the war in the middle east so what
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  Speaker 2: you've got is a real shortage and the u.s is
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  Speaker 2: using the threat as a weapon if you like says
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  Speaker 2: you guys in europe have quite a lot of stocks
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  Speaker 2: release those and bring prices down and of course there
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  Speaker 2: is political impetus in europe as well to do so
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  Speaker 2: otherwise it's exactly the stuff we've been talking about which
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  Speaker 2: is that cost of living issues are leading to quite
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  Speaker 2: a 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.
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  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:26
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• 3:30
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