Soeder Calls for ECB Inflation Brake in Final Days of Campaign
ECB Inflation Brake Called For by Soeder in Pre-Election Tweet
(Bloomberg) -- Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder, who heads a key faction in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc, called for the European Central Bank to introduce an “inflation brake” to shield citizens from price increases.
The leader of the CSU party, a frequent critic of the Frankfurt-based institution, tweeted that “increasing inflation is a creeping expropriation” and also suggested fiscal measures should be instituted to combat that effect.
“A brake means: the ECB has to act at 5% at the latest,” Soeder told journalists. “It will be the task of the new federal government to draw a clear line via the options it has, for example through representatives in the Governing Council, but also through European financial policy.”
Despite Soeder’s alarm, consumer-price increases -- now at an annual pace of 3.4% in Germany, the fastest since 2008 -- haven’t dominated the country’s election campaign before voters go to the polls on Sept. 26. That’s despite traditional concerns dating back to the Weimar Republic’s hyperinflation in the 1920.
The intervention from Soeder, who lost the battle over the conservative chancellor candidacy to Armin Laschet, chimes with others from Merkel’s CDU/CSU alliance. CDU economics spokesman Friedrich Merz has also cited the matter in recent weeks.
The conservatives are currently running second in opinion polls, having ceded the lead in the election to the Social Democrats, whose candidate for chancellor is current Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.