You should be prepared for higher inflation may be on the way

Article Excerpt

The U.S. Federal Reserve recently announced that it is, under certain conditions, prepared to let inflation run well above its long-established target of 2%. The decision implies that U.S. interest rates will remain low. And, in fact, a recent survey of Fed officials showed the group expects rates to remain at or near zero through 2023. Most of the other major central banks, including the Bank of Canada, plan to keep interest rates low for a long time even if inflation starts to rise. Those low rates are aimed at supporting economic growth and employment. The full impact of these monetary policies in the long term remains to be seen. However, there are already early signs of inflation that are not readily reflected in the main official statistics. Harbingers of higher inflation From an overall perspective, there are few signs that consumer prices are about to take off. In the U.S., core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy, are now 1.6% higher than…