IW Long Reads: Are we ready to see inflation levels take off again?

Hopes for return to pre-pandemic levels take flight

Despite the economic destruction wrought by Covid-19, inflation expectations have begun to rise thanks to the sheer scale of the global monetary response to the pandemic. Dwarfing the response to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the Federal Reserve's balance sheet alone has shot up roughly from $4trn to $7trn, while the amount of monetary and fiscal stimulus from other central banks has been described by most commentators as unprecedented. So, after years of muted inflation and expectations of a 'Japanification' of many developed market economies, will these monetary and fiscal responses...