Bennett Jones Spring 2022 Economic Outlook: Planning In An Uncertain, Supply-Constrained World

We present this Bennett Jones Spring 2022 Economic Outlook in a period of great uncertainty. A war in Europe and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to exerting a devastating human toll, have reverberated through the global and Canadian economies. How these and other external forces will evolve, and how policy authorities worldwide will respond, are unknowns that make the development of economic projections and business plans unusually hazardous.

What we do know, after a strong recovery of activity and employment from the period of COVID lockdowns, is that the world today is very different than only some years ago. In the period following the Great Recession, central banks and governments confronted a demand deficit and persistently low, below-target inflation. The opposite is true today. There is now a supply deficit. And correspondingly high, above-target inflation around the world, including in the United States and Canada.