There are also some tentative signs that conditions in the labour market are easing. The issue over the period ahead will be whether these latter forces prove sufficient to contain inflation in an economy operating with little spare capacity.
Many of the old industrial countries, in contrast, still have large volumes of idle capacity and are searching, with increasing urgency, for ways to increase their growth. But they are having trouble increasing their own demand. So we face a slowdown of some degree in global growth at a time when substantial spare capacity remains in the global economy.