(Invesco) Following dramatic fiscal and monetary policy moves in 2020 and 2021, the stage is set for 2022 to be a year of transition as policies and economies move toward a more normal state.
However, issues remain that will likely define the economic and market environment, including continued supply-chain disruptions and an upsurge in demand that threaten to keep inflation high across many economies. For 2022, our outlook is centered on the question of inflation and how markets and policymakers may react to it.
Our Base Case
We expect global growth to normalize, remaining above its long-term trend but decelerating to a more sustainable rate as fiscal stimulus is gradually removed. We anticipate that inflation will peak in mid-2022 and then start to slowly moderate, backing down toward target rates by the end of 2023 as supply chain issues resolve, vaccination levels increase, and more employees return to the workforce.
We look for the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to remain patiently accommodative, with a rate lift-off in the back half of 2022, although other developed countries’ central banks might act more quickly. Finally, we expect volatility will increase as markets digest the transition to slower growth and a gradual tightening in monetary policy.
Transitory Inflation Risk
In our transitory inflation risk scenario, current inflation fears prove to be overblown, with inflation gradually coming off its current highs towards something close to or below 2%. We see growth higher than normal in this environment, ultimately pointing to economies being earlier in the cycle than we currently judge them.
Persistent Inflationary Risk
In our persistent inflationary risk scenario, developed central banks’ messaging fails to convince markets that inflation is transitory, with further elevated prints throughout 2022. We see the problem as stemming from a combination of elevated demand driven by past monetary expansion and supply-side disruptions.
This causes inflation expectations to become unanchored, with medium-term expectations rising above the 4% mark persistently. This would signal a loss of credibility for those central banks, requiring action that prompts a significant risk of ending the current economic cycle.
