UNEXPECTEDLY! German inflation unexpectedly accelerated this month.

German inflation unexpectedly accelerated this month, following a trend already seen in France and Italy that will increase pressure on the European Central Bank to raise interest rates even as a recession looms.

Consumer prices in Europe’s largest economy rose 11.6% from a year earlier — far exceeding all estimates in a Bloomberg survey whose median forecast was 10.9%. Comparable rates were last recorded in the early 1950s in West Germany.

Don’t worry — what’s the worst that could happen?