Will demographic changes boost inflationary pressures?

The rapid growth of the global labour supply in the past few decades looks set to give way to a period of much weaker growth. Some argue that this will reverse the decline in inflation seen in recent years as the bargaining power of labour rises and an ageing population boosts the number of consumers relative to producers. But there is a lot of uncertainty about how demographic changes affect inflation. Even if the net impact is to push inflation up moderately, other factors such as the attitudes of policymakers towards inflation are likely to play a far bigger role in determining whether we see higher inflation in the long run.