The risks to our forecast that CPI inflation will rise from 1.5% in April to a peak of 2.6% in November before dropping back in 2022 are increasingly on the upside. Rises in shipping costs and global agricultural commodity prices as well as shortages of semiconductors and labour could all conspire to push CPI inflation higher this year and keep it above 2% next year. At the moment, though, we think that the lingering effects of last year’s collapse in output will prompt many firms to absorb the bulk of higher costs in their margins and to limit pay rather than pass them on to consumers via much higher prices. This “spare capacity” effect explains why we think core inflation will stay below 2% until late in 2023.
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