The Inflation Struggle Is Over. Just Don’t Tell Anyone

Even with inflation well and truly on the way down after the most aggressive interest-rate tightening in a generation, central banks are averse to declarations of victory. That the pace of price increases has been reined in without a major economic downturn is an accomplishment that warrants some trumpeting.

While new forecasts from the International Monetary Fund came with the usual recommendation to crack down on debt and tut-tutting on the ills of protectionism, what really stands out is good grades for the conduct of monetary policy. In its eight decades, the world’s lender of last resort developed a reputation as a bit of a scold. So the praise contained in the World Economic Outlook, which was released on Tuesday, is noteworthy. “The decline in inflation without a global recession is a major achievement,” Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas wrote in a blog post.