It might be time for the reflation trade to spark back into life

Many investors have taken the view that inflation will be “transitory”. But with both UK and US figures higher than expected, it might be time to reconsider, says John Stepek, The "reflation" trade could be back on.

Gold bars
Conditions could be coming good for gold
(Image credit: © Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

This week, inflation data in both the UK and the US has come in a lot stronger than analysts had expected.

This comes at a point when most investors were starting to believe the idea that inflation is “transitory”.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.