New Approaches to Understanding and Managing Inflation

Introduction by Ambassador Kerem Alkin, Permanent Representative of Turkey to the OECD

Chaired by Megan Greene, Financial Times and and Senior Fellow at Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School

Speakers:

Jared Bernstein, Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers

George Chouliarakis, Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School and former Minister of Finance of Greece

Jason Furman, Department of Economics, Harvard University and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers

Jeremy Rudd, Senior Advisor, Program Direction, Research and Statistics Division of the US Federal Reserve Board

Price inflation, so low for so long in the OECD economies has accelerated sharply in the wake of the pandemic, as global demand has recovered more rapidly than supply, which has been restrained by health-related restrictions and attendant disruptions to intricate global supply chains. Inflation had been expected to moderate over the course of 2022 and beyond, as central banks begin to pull back rapid monetary growth and disruptions to supply chains and shortages in key sectors were addressed. However, inflation is now getting a further impulse from sharp increases in global energy prices and the prospect of disruptions to key food staples resulting from Russia’s war against Ukraine. This seminar discusses the prospects for inflation given current economic and geopolitical dynamics and what it tells us about how well we understand the macro economy.