Gone missing: As the global economy picks up, inflation is oddly quiescent

Print section Print Rubric:  The world economy is gathering momentum—but where’s the inflation? Print Headline:  Gone missing Print Fly Title:  Global inflation UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  Do social media threaten democracy? Fly Title:  Gone missing Main image:  20171104_FND001_0.jpg A FEW years ago, the news about the euro-zone economy was uniformly bad to the point of tedium. These days, it is the humdrum diet of benign data that prompts a yawn. Figures this week show that GDP rose by 0.6% in the three months to the end of September (an annualised rate of 2.4%). The European Commission’s economic-sentiment index rose to its highest level in almost 17 years. Yet when the European Central Bank’s governing council gathered on October 26th, it decided to keep interest rates unchanged, at close to zero, and to extend its bond-buying programme (known ...