2023-06-27 15:56:32
Faced with the surge in inflation, central banks feared the appearance of the famous price-wage spiral. However, it is the companies which, by inflating their margins, have fueled the rise in prices. Except in Belgium, according to the National Bank. Article reserved for subscribers Journalist in the Economy department By Dominique Berns Published on 06/27/2023 at 17:56 Reading time: 5 min
The initial cause of the particularly marked inflationary surge last year – at levels that our countries had not recorded for forty years! – is not debatable: all the economists point to the soaring prices of fossil fuels and in particular of gas, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, the “energy shock” does not explain everything: neither the magnitude of the inflationary surge nor its persistence – more precisely the persistence of so-called “core” inflation, despite the marked decline in energy prices since last fall.
In line with the experience of the two oil shocks of the 1970s, central banks watched – as did the cook, the milk on the stove – for the appearance of the price-wage spiral, in which workers, by demanding increases of their salaries to compensate for the rise in prices, contribute to fueling inflation.
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