IMF Warns of Inflation Surprise: Could It Be Good for Gold?

The International Monetary Fund (or IMF) also warned on April 18, 2018, that the unexpected rise in US inflation could cause significant global tensions, which could force central banks to respond firmly. It added that a hike in inflation in the US could lead the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates faster than expected. The director of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department, Tobias Adrian, said, “What we are flagging is that at some point markets see shocks in inflation that raise inflation uncertainty and when that happens, that is associated with a rise in long-term interest rates and that might lead to a tightening in financial conditions.” While he said that the uncertainty regarding US inflation is very low, markets could have an outsized reaction to any spike.