It was all going so well. Successful vaccination programmes were driving the post-pandemic recovery of the global economy, stock markets were back at record highs, and prices were rising just enough to make deflation fears a thing of the past.
But a supply crunch that initially put a question mark over the availability of luxury cars or whether there would be enough PlayStations under our Christmas trees is instead morphing into a full-blown crisis featuring a shortage of energy, labour and transport from Liverpool to Los Angeles, and from Qingdao to Queensland.
China power shortage threatens supply chain disruption and higher prices
Electricity customers across China were forced to spend periods of the last few weeks in the dark as utilities cut out the lights to manage significant power shortages.
The consequences are leading to forecasts of additional obstacles to a global economic recovery, with the disruptions to the world’s second-largest economy expected to raise prices and compound existing supply chain issues.
