Survey: Business economists foresee persistent inflation

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s business economists have sharply raised their forecasts for inflation, predicting an extension of the price spikes that have resulted in large part from bottlenecked supply chains. A survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics found that its panel of forecasters expects consumer prices to rise 6% this quarter compared with a year ago. That marks an increase from the 5.1% inflation the forecasters predicted in September for the same 12-month period. Eighty-seven of the panelists have identified supply chain bottlenecks as a major factor in the acceleration of prices.