The global inflation surge
- Date
- 2021–2023 (peak June 2022)
- Category
- Economy & trade
- Region
- Global
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
Between 2021 and 2023 the world experienced its sharpest burst of inflation in roughly four decades.
Pandemic-era supply-chain bottlenecks, surging demand fuelled by stimulus and reopening, and then the energy and food price shocks of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine combined to push consumer prices sharply higher across most economies. In the United States, annual inflation peaked at 9.1 percent in June 2022 — the highest since 1981 — while the eurozone reached its highest rate on record and global inflation hit its highest level since the mid-1990s. In response, the US Federal Reserve and central banks worldwide raised interest rates at the fastest pace in decades; the Fed lifted its target range by 425 basis points during 2022 alone. The tightening raised borrowing costs, squeezed households and businesses, strained heavily indebted developing nations, and fuelled fears of recession, even as it gradually brought inflation down. The episode reshaped monetary policy debates and ended an era of ultra-low interest rates.
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Related economy & trade events
- The global financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers15 September 2008
- The US-China trade war begins6 July 2018
- Xi Jinping launches the Belt and Road Initiative7 September 2013
- Founding of the World Trade Organization1 January 1995
- Nixon shock ends gold convertibility and ushers in 1970s stagflation15 August 1971
- China's Reform and Opening-Up Begins Under Deng XiaopingDecember 18, 1978
Further reading
The wider story
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
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