How inflation has come back from the dead

Inflation has made a sudden comeback in the US and elsewhere, but it is still too early to talk of a new inflationary trend.

Inflation has made a sudden comeback. America’s core consumer price index (CPI) – which strips out volatile food and energy costs – jumped 0.6% in July compared to June, the biggest monthly rise since 1991. In annual terms, core US CPI advanced by 1.6% last month. In Britain inflation is more subdued, with prices rising by 1% year-on-year in July, but that figure still surprised on the upside. UK core inflation rose by 1.8% year-on-year last month.

Jonathan Allum notes in The Blah! newsletter that even in Japan, “where inflation went to die”, producer prices rose by 0.6% in July on the previous month, although they remain down on the year. In China inflation rose to 2.7% last month. Widespread flooding in the country’s south has caused a spike in food prices.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.