Mohamed A. El-Erian , Columnist

The Lowflation Demon That Vexes Central Banks

It has complicated monetary policy decisions and undermined the range of institutional solutions.

August 23, 2017 at 6:00 AM UTC

Mohamed A. El-Erian is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A former chief executive officer of Pimco, he is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge; chief economic adviser at Allianz SE; and chair of Gramercy Fund Management. He is author of “The Only Game in Town.”

Waiting for prices to budge.
Photographer: Chris Kleponis/AFP/Getty Images

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Persistently low inflation, or "lowflation," is vexing lots of people. According to the recent minutes of policy meetings of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, central banks on both sides of the Atlantic have been trying to identify the causes -- but with limited success so far. This complicates monetary policy decisions and undermines the range of institutional solutions that have been proposed by academics. Until this changes, central banks may need to think more holistically about the objectives of monetary policy, including the unintended consequences for future financial stability and growth of being too loose for too long.

Four facts stand out in reviewing recent inflation data: