Dear friends and colleagues:
The CFR Global Inflation Tracker is updated. After peaking at 8.7% in quarter 3 of 2022, median global inflation of tracker countries fell to 3.1% in quarter 2 of 2024. Falling commodity prices account for at least 2 percentage points of the decline. Though global inflation remains elevated above its pre-COVID-19 level of 2.2%, major reserve-currency issuing central banks, in acknowledgement of inflation’s steady decline, are one-by-one ending their tightening cycles. An escalation of conflict in the Middle East, however, could push up oil prices and revive inflationary pressures.
For those of you who had trouble accessing my Barron’s op-ed on China’s central-bank swaps last Friday, just click on the “X” to the right of “Barron’s”.
Yours sincerely, |