On 21 April 2022, the Faculty of Finance of the City University of Macau held the Finance Seminar Series [21], China Life - GuangFa Bank Joint Lecture– Fourth Talk, at Ho Yin Convention Centre. Mr. Zhang Yao from the Treasury Department of China GuangFa Bank (Macau Branch) was invited to deliver an online speech titled “Some Thoughts in the Context of Global Inflation”. Guests attending this seminar include Ms. Baoguo Lin, Deputy General Manager of Corporate Banking Department, China Guangfa Bank Macau Branch; Dean Adrian Cheung and Associate Dean Eva Khong of the Faculty of Finance, City University of Macau.

The process of global economic recovery is facing the impact of inflation, and inflation has become a new challenge to the world economy. Mr. Zhang Yao stated that as of December 2021, 15 out of 34 developed countries had inflation exceeding 5%, and such sudden and highly synchronized high inflation had never been seen in the past 20 years. The causes of this round of inflation included epidemic and recovery, prices of energy and means of production, shortage of goods, transportation costs, salary and labor costs, climate change, trade barriers and globalization.

Mr. Zhang pointed out that moderate and stable inflation is conducive to the healthy economic development of the economy, but excessive inflation and large fluctuations are not. If prices are unpredictable, it will be difficult for people to plan ahead for consumption, savings or investment. For the national economy, high inflation and volatility can also lead to economic collapse under specific circumstances, and can lead to problems such as rising production costs, increases in commodity and food prices, financial market volatility, and disparities between developed economies and developing economies.

As for what kind of era we will enter in the future, Mr. Zhang put forward several thinking directions. With regard to the reshaping of the world in the epidemic era, COVID-19 has reshaped the operation mode of the world, which has caused all economies to rethink the problem of globalization and supply chain; major economies have entered a shrinking cycle, and the green costs of fighting the epidemic, such as carbon neutrality and green economy, are also likely to rise sharply, resulting in a society with high-interest rates and high costs; there are also problems such as anti-globalization and decoupling, geopolitical crisis and uncertainties, and coexistence of crises and opportunities.

At the end of the sharing session, the students took this valuable opportunity to actively pose questions about some recently launched policies and current affairs of the financial market. Mr. Zhang responded and shared his views clearly. The seminar made students pay more attention to and think about the future development trend of the global economy. The Faculty of Finance will continue to invite experts from different fields of the financial industry to share their insights with students in order to enrich their financial knowledge.