Even after economies had reopened, fears of long-term scarring, including bankruptcies and permanent job losses, prompted coordinated responses from governments and central banks to uphold highly stimulative policies. In retrospect, we now know that such stimulus provided excess support to demand at a time when supply was struggling to adjust, which compounded inflation.
The war in Ukraine, which exacerbated the shock to prices of oil, gas and some inputs into food production, such as fertilisers, added to the global inflation problem.