Videos by UBS
Paul Donovan discussing what's next for inflation and the global economy

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 2:32
Loaded: 6.44%
0:00
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -2:32
- captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
- captions off
- English
- 720p720pHD
- 576p576p
- 432p432p
- 288p288p
- AutoA, selected
- 2x
- 1.75x
- 1.5x
- 1.25x
- 1x, selected
- 0.75x
- 0.5x
1x
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- en (Main), selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.
Paul Donovan discussing what's next for inflation and the global economy
Well, the current rise in inflation is very unusual.
It's not really being driven by labor costs, it's being
driven by pricing power and profit margins following a year
of simply extraordinary levels of demand for goods. Now what
we are seeing is that as demand for goods is
slowing down, the inflation rate for those goods is slowing
down or even moving
into deflation. So we've seen price drops for consumer electronics.
We're seeing actually outright deflation for mobile phones for televisions.
So I think to expect a moderation of the
inflation numbers in the second half of this year is
very, very realistic.
I think central banks will get inflation under control, partly
because it's naturally coming down. There's a certain amount
of economic gravity at work here, but
it's a slightly tricky situation. There is a large part
of the inflation basket central banks cannot control, and that's
where prices are going up. The areas where they can
control, they have to either encourage disinflation or deflation, not
by changing wages, because that's not the problem
but by slowing demand in the economy, and that's going
to be a delicate balancing act. But I think they
will generally get it right.
I think the risk of a US recession has increased
following the Fed's recent policy errors. It has basically abandoned
forward guidance, and it's placing more emphasis on consumer price
inflation which adds volatility and uncertainty to financial markets. Well,
that does have some feed through into the real economy,
but despite those errors, I think the risk is still
below 50%, and we will probably avoid a US recession.
That's because I think people still have job security. Now
pay bargaining power is actually very weak at the
moment. But as long as people have got job security,
they're willing to save a little bit less in order
to spend a little bit more. And that's what avoids
a recession while still having the economy moderate in the
second half.