After peaking in 2022 at 11% year on year, inflation across the rich world has steadily fallen. Until now. As central banks bring down interest rates, headline inflation across the rich world is edging up (see chart 1 ). It rose from 2.1% in September to 2.5% in December.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “As the balloons go up”

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