Yikes! German PPI Soars To 45.8% YoY (The New Russian Front?) – Confounded Interest – Anthony B. Sanders

The war in Ukraine is still going on and Russia is punishing Germany in terms of energy supply.

It is almost as if the Ukraine war is the NEW Russian front for Germany. The German Producer Price Index YoY surged to 45.8% YoY.

German buyers on Monday briefly reserved capacity to receive Russian gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for the first time since the line was shut down three weeks ago, German data showed, but this was later revised and no gas has been flowing.

It was not immediately clear why buyers had submitted requests for capacity when Russia has given no indication since it shut the line that it would restart any time soon.

Russia, which had supplied about 40% of the European Union’s gas before the Ukraine conflict, has said it closed the pipeline because Western sanctions hindered operations. European politicians say that is a pretext and accuse Moscow of using energy as a weapon.

But German inflation, using CPI, is only 7.9%. Something has to give!

On the western front (US), the US Treasury 10yr yield is up +10.2 bps. And sovereign yields in Europe are all above 10 bps.