By Olusegun Obisanya
One of the international development institutions, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that the global economies would continue to track higher through 2022, led by rising food and energy prices.
Global inflation is now forecast to hit 6.6 percent in advanced economies and 9.5 percent in emerging market and developing economies this year — an upward revision of 0.9 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively.
With rising prices fueling a global cost-of-living crisis, the IMF said taming inflation should be policymakers’ number one priority.
“Tighter monetary policy will inevitably have real economic costs, but delay will only exacerbate them,” it said.
It added that policies to address higher energy and fuel prices should focus on the most vulnerable groups without distorting overall prices.
For months now, central banks have been progressively embracing tighter monetary policy. The European Central Bank last week joined the likes of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England in raising interest rates — its first such move in 11 years.
To avert United States’ economy going into recession, the U.S. Federal Reserve for the second time in the year announced hike in interest rate to 0.75 percent.
Yet, inflation has remained persistent, hitting 40-year highs in the U.S. and the U.K. last month.
