Could there be a return to the world as it once was?
Could the end of the COVID crisis and the war in Ukraine send OECD countries back to the “world as it once was” (1970s-1990s), where: Inflation was higher; Wages were more closely indexed to prices; Central banks did more to combat inflation; Corporate earnings suffered in the event of an inflationary shock; Monetary policy did not concern itself with public debt sustainability, so fiscal policy had to be less expansionary? There are now a few signs of such a return to this world as it once was : certainly inflation and central banks’ communication with regard to inflation, although not yet the rest (wage indexation, loss of earnings, more restrictive fiscal policies). But we believe that these other characteristics will appear gradually.