What Drives U.S. Import Price Inflation?
Working Paper 32133
DOI 10.3386/w32133
Issue Date
Inflation has risen sharply in many countries since the COVID-19 outbreak. Economists have debated the underlying causes. In this paper, we examine the drivers of the global import price inflation, which peaked at approximately 11 percent a year. We find that a common global component closely tracks movements in aggregate U.S. import prices until late 2022. Afterward, idiosyncratic U.S. demand shocks started to dominate.
Non-Technical Summaries
- Increases in the prices of imported goods contributed to the overall rise in the US inflation rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mary Amiti...