The chief executive of the world’s biggest shipping company says he’s not seeing signs of a dangerous resurgence in inflation.
A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S transports about a fifth of global trade, giving it a prime vantage point from which to catch a first glimpse of economic developments before they’re released in the form of official statistics.
Maersk CEO Soren Skou, who spoke before fresh U.S. inflation data was published on Wednesday, says he’s fully aware that “many economists fear inflation because so much money is being pumped out.” And though history would suggest that the monetary environment ought to feed dangerous inflation, “we don’t really see that now,” Skou said in an interview. “On a global level we don’t see strong inflationary pressure at this point.”
Trying to figure out if and when inflation will make a real comeback is emerging as one of the key questions of 2021, as economies are pumped with record fiscal relief after years of unprecedented central bank support. The Federal Reserve has repeatedly characterized sudden flashes of inflation as transitory, but asset managers are clearly worried.