Charting the global economy

High prices: A shopper walks through a grocery store in Washington. The war in Ukraine means the food inflation that’s been plaguing global consumers is now tipping into a full-blown crisis. — AFP

NEW YORK: Central bankers around the world are facing a double whammy of faster inflation and the prospects of slower growth, only made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The biggest annual surge in the United States consumer prices since 1982 illustrates an environment of persistent inflation that will encourage Federal Reserve (Fed) policy makers to begin raising interest rates.