Barings' Cole is keeping inflation and deflation top of the agenda

We have been revising up most of the economic scores for Western countries, as the latest data has been consistently, if modestly, surprising on the upside. This means our confidence in the recovery is growing, even if the scale of the recovery remains muted. One area we will be keeping a close eye on, however, is inflation. Activity may be rising but not at a sufficient rate to take up spare capacity fast enough to get prices rising. So, even in the strongest of the major economies, deflationary forces are still powerful. Region by region Looking regionally, the US appears to have ...