The rate of inflation last reached double digits in the 1970s in many major economies as the US government expanded spending on social programmes and the Vietnam War. The oil shocks in 1973 and 1979 further fuelled rises in prices.
Inflation is set to pick up again in the first half of 2021, says Bank of Singapore’s chief economist Mansoor Mohi-uddin in an economics research report.
This, he says, is caused by overall demand exceeding supply, which results in “too much money chasing too few goods”.
