“In the very near term, headwinds to growth are being overshadowed by rising inflation, as the region battles surging costs for food, fertilisers, fuel and increasingly labour, creating a vortex of inflationary headwinds.”
In the past three months, economic fortunes across Asia have diverged on growth, but joined up on inflation, say Barclays economists Rahul Bajoria and Chang Jian.
Calling inflation an “immediate headache”, Bajoria and Chang say the region’s high exposure to energy prices has fuelled sharp rises in inflation over the past few months.
