Episode 4: A very expensive recovery

The Post Covid-19 Recovery continues to progress whilst inflation is reaching historic levels and consumers are being squeezed by higher prices. The annual rate of inflation in the United States hit 6.2 per cent in October 2021, the highest in more than three decades. On the other side of the Atlantic, inflation has pushed the cost of living in the UK in October to a 10-year high.

Global food prices have hit the highest level in over a decade after rising by more than 30 per cent in the last year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

But what does that mean for the economy?

What does higher inflation tell us about the state of the recovery and, most importantly, why is a persisting high inflation a real threat to the recovery ?

Find out more about what is causing these historic inflation rates and when economists think the situation will start improving.

Guests:
Laurence Boone, Chief Economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD

Petya Koeva Brooks, Deputy Director in the IMF's Strategy, Policy, and Review Department

Mahir Rasheed, US economist at Oxford Economics

Simon MacAdam, Senior Global Economist at Capital Economics

Ezra Greenberg, Partner, Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice at McKinsey and Company

Martin Hirt, Senior Partner at McKinsey and Company

Narrated by: Mustafa Alrawi, The National's assistant editor-in-chief