BERLIN – While Covid-19 pandemic-induced supply chain bottlenecks continue to fuel price rises, the fight against inflation has become the most important item on the agenda of the global economy.
As consumer and producer prices continue to spike across the world, the debate around “the new age of inflation” is gaining momentum.
Global price pressures such as ongoing logistics problems, labor shortages and high energy prices challenge the view that inflation will be "temporary.”
According to the latest data, US inflation recently hit its highest level in 31 years.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.2 percent in October, the largest 12-month increase since November 1990, and climbed 0.9 percent from the previous month.
As the rise in the cost of living for Americans heightens concerns, analysts said high inflation may last longer than expected and force the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to hike interest rates sooner.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that supply chain bottlenecks and high inflation are expected to continue “well into next year” and that inflation is expected to cool off in the second or third quarter of 2022.
The price rises in Europe, especially in energy and food, also disturbs citizens.
Annual inflation in the euro area hit 3.4 percent in September, the highest in the last 13 years.
In Germany, the locomotive of the European economy, the Federal Statistical Office pointed out that annual inflation, which was 4.1 percent in September, rose to 4.5 percent in October for the first time since 1993, due to high energy prices and supply problems.
Doubts are growing over the view that the price increases will be "temporary" as claimed by some economists and most central bank officials, including European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde.
Lagarde had said the inflation rate would rise much sooner but fall next year.
In China, the world's second largest economy, ex-factory prices increased at their fastest pace in 26 years, pushing consumer price inflation above expectations.
The CPI increased by 1.5 percent in October compared to the same period of last year, recording the sharpest rise since September 2020.
Producer prices in China have also maintained their rapid hike due to a rally in global commodity prices and the energy crisis across the country.
According to data compiled by Anadolu Agency, the inflation rate in 15 countries varies between 10 percent and 20 percent.
Inflation is 10 percent in Seychelles and Turkmenistan, 10.49 percent in Burundi, 10.5 percent in Belarus, 10.6 percent in Uzbekistan, 10.67 percent in Brazil and 10.9 percent in Ukraine, 10.91 percent in Haiti, 11 percent in Ghana, 11.63 percent in Sierra Leone, 12.8 percent in Georgia, 13.05 percent in Guinea, 13.5 percent in Kyrgyzstan, 16.63 percent in Nigeria and 19.89 percent in Turkey.
The figure is above 20 percent in Zambia, Angola, Ethiopia, Iran, Argentina, Zimbabwe, Suriname, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, and Venezuela. (Anadolu)
