US inflation is now higher than in most emerging markets

As inflation continues to climb in the US, hitting a 39 year high of 6.8% in November, a common argument is that inflation is rising globally, so the US economy is no exception. In our opinion, this is not entirely true and a warrants a closer look. Of the 29 emerging market countries that we cover, only nine have inflation running above that of the US, a group that includes macro misfits such as Argentina and Turkey. And comparing to the EU’s 4.4% inflation rate, the US is clearly an outlier. As we have highlighted before, many central banks in the developing world have already started to raise interest rates to combat inflation. And Poland and Korea have announced fuel and energy tax cuts to reduce pressure on prices. It’s not often that the emerging world has inflation meaningfully below that of the US, but this is the reality.