Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that it’s a mistake to believe that inflation isn’t a threat, though he doesn’t see an imminent rise in prices.

Greenspan spoke at an event in Washington today after a report from the Labor Department showed that producer prices rose by the most in more than a year in April.

“It came in as a big surprise,” Greenspan said at a forum organized by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. “Now, I’m not forecasting that inflation is about to run. I doubt it very much. But the presumption that it’s no longer on the horizon I think is a mistake.”

The 0.6 percent increase in the producer price index was the biggest since September 2012 and exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, today’s Labor Department report showed.

“I don’t know whether or not that is other than a blip, but if inflation is beginning to pick up, it’s got to start somewhere, and it usually starts the way we’re looking at it,” Greenspan said.