Whiff of stagflation gets stronger

The whiff of stagflation is getting stronger as shortages worsen, leading to surging prices and weaker real GDP growth. Shortages of goods and intermediate inputs will eventually ease, although not for at least six to 12 months. But the drop in the labour force appears to be more permanent, which suggests the pandemic could have a long-term scarring effect on potential GDP after all. We now expect GDP growth to be 2.7% in 2022 and 2.0% in 2023 and we expect CPI inflation to be around 3.0% in both years. We assume the Fed will focus on the weakness in the real economy rather than the sustained overshoot in inflation, however, and are forecasting only two interest rate hikes in 2023.