According to a new report in Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs analysts are telling clients that British inflation could jump above 22% if gas prices continue to rise.
According to the report, economists with the bank are estimating that the UK will be forced to raise the energy cap by an additional 80% in January, That will, in turn, drive inflation above 22.4%, and that would trigger a 3.4% decrease in GDP.
However even if energy prices stabilize, the economists found that peak inflation would still rise to 14.8% in January, and that would still be enough to plunge the national economy into recession.
Increasing the risk of recession is the fact that the economists also note that this likelihood is certain to provoke drastic measures from the Bank of England as it seeks to tighten monetary policy, which will likely include a key rate hike of as much as 4.25% from the current 1.75%.
Goldman Sach’s forecast is more dire than one produced last week by Citigroup. Citigroup’s analysts predicted that inflation in the UK would rise to 18.6% next year, and those both dwarf the Bank of England’s prediction, which is for inflation to only rise to 13%.