Germany must learn to live with a little inflation

INFLATION IN GERMANY exceeded 2% in April. If the Bundesbank’s latest forecasts prove right, it could soon reach 4% for the first time in nearly 30 years. Inflation angst is rising among the country’s monetary hawks. The exigencies of the pandemic muted German grumbling about the European Central Bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy. But as inflation rises, so will reflexive German demands that the bank should taper its bond-buying.Such clamouring would be misguided. Europe’s recovery is more subdued than America’s, making the odds even better that the inflation spike will prove temporary. And the interests of the weaker members of the currency union, still crawling their way back to health, should come first.