PRICES surged across the countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as energy prices pushed boosted the average annual inflation to 3.3 per cent in April, compared with 2.4 per cent in March.

Annual energy prices rose sharply by 16.3 per cent in April which is the highest rate since September, 2008, when the global financial crisis delivered a shock to the economy. Nevertheless, food price inflation slowed to 1.6 per cent compared with 2.7 per cent in the previous month.

But prices are rising despite that, as inflation excluding food and energy also jumped from 1.8 per cent in March to 2.4 per cent in April.

The increase in inflation varies across the 38 OECD member states, which together account for about 60 per cent of the global economy. In the United States, annual inflation increased sharply to 4.2 per cent in April from 2.6 per cent in March, while Canada’s rate accelerated from 2.2 per cent to 3.4 per cent.

The Euro Area saw more modest increases in April as overall inflation increased to 1.6 per cent from 1.3 per cent in March, reflecting essentially rising energy prices. The United Kingdom saw it surge to 1.6 per cent, Germany to 2 per cent, France to 1.2 per cent and Italy to 1.1 per cent.

Among the G7 countries, the rebound in overall inflation coincided with a pick-up in inflation excluding food and energy only in the United States and Canada. Annual inflation in the G20 area as a whole also increased to 3.8 per cent in April.

The OECD expects the jump in inflation will fade by the end of the year as supply chains disrupted by the pandemic get back up to speed and production capacity returns to normal.