The Rise in Global Inflation Threatens World Economy

The latest data on inflation from the World Bank shows that global inflation continues to accelerate. In May 2022, the world consumer price index (CPI) growth accelerated to 8.1% year-over-year. The last time year-over-year global inflation approached 8% was in 2008, when the world economy was stepping in the Great Recession.

Knoema's global inflation heat map, based on the World Bank data, reveals the spread of inflation to more and more countries each month.

• In Dec 2019, among 107 countries in the World Bank's dataset, there were only 5 countries where year-over-year CPI growth exceeded 10%, and 21 economies where CPI growth ranged between 4% and 10%.
• By May 2022 the number of countries with year-over-year CPI growth above 10% had increased to 39, and the number of countries with CPI growth between 4% and 10% had reached 54.
• Due to high commodity prices the potential for cost-push inflation still remains high. For example, in May 2022 global CPI was 16.4% higher than it had been in May 2019. For the same period, prices for energy and non-energy commodities — the raw materials and energy used in production — increased by 88.9% and 64.4%, respectively.
• The downward trend in commodity prices since mid-June 2022, especially declining prices for copper, may indicate that high inflation is already hitting the global economy.