The global economy is deflationary: Why, and what to do about it?
The falls in inflation and in real interest rates reveal the deflationary trend at work in the global economy. Increasingly, there are excess savings over investment ( ex ante , before reaching the equilibrium where savings are inevitably equal to investment), which results from the increase in the private savings rate relative to the investment rate. When nominal interest rates can no longer follow inflation rates lower, then the world really will slide into deflation. The rise in the private savings rate results from uncertainty and concern over the solidity of social welfare systems; it is difficult to correct. To prevent it from leading to deflation, it must be offset by a rise in the global investment rate: In OECD countries, an increase in efficient public investment (healthcare, education, energy transition, digital economy, etc.); In emerging countries with abnormally low investment rates, an across-the-board increase in investment .