Markets
Animation: The Rapidly Aging Western World
From issues such as declining fertility rates to the ongoing complications resulting from China’s famous “One Child Policy”, there are many demographic challenges that the world must grapple with in the coming years.
However, one problem of particular importance – at least in places like Europe and the Americas – is a rapidly aging population. As the population shifts grayer, potential consequences include higher dependency ratios, rising healthcare costs, and shifting economies and cities.
Europe: A Prime Example
We’ve discussed Germany’s demographic cliff before, but it’s not only Germany that will be impacted by a rapidly aging population.
The above animation from data visualization expert Aron Strandberg shows the median age of European countries between 1960 and 2060.
Starting about a decade from now, you can see that the U.N. projects some European countries to start hitting a median age of 50 or higher. This includes countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Greece, and then later Germany, Poland, Bosnia, and Croatia.
The UK, France, Ireland, Scandinavia, and former Soviet countries will be younger – but only slightly so. Median ages in these places by 2060 will be in the early to mid-forties.
The Americas
Populations in North and South America are also graying fast, though not quite at Europe’s pace.
Here’s a similar map of the Americas that highlights median age between 1960 and 2060, based on U.N. projections.
Chile and Brazil, in particular, are trending older. Meanwhile, Canada is not far behind with an expected median age of 45 in 2060. Interestingly, the United States is anticipated to only hit a median age of 42 by 2060, which is lower than almost all Western countries.
While this makes the U.S. look younger in comparison, the country will still experience the same type of economic burden from an aging population. In fact, it’s expected that the population of Americans older than 65 years will nearly double from 48 million to 88 million over the coming three decades.
Markets
Mapped: 2023 Inflation Forecasts by Country
Inflation surged on a global scale in 2022, hitting record-level highs in many countries. Could it finally subside in 2023?

Mapped: 2023 Inflation Forecasts by Country
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Inflation surged on a global scale in 2022, hitting record-level highs in many countries. Could it finally subside in 2023?
In the above infographic, we look to answer that question using the World Economic Outlook report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Not Yet Out of the Woods
While the IMF predicts that global inflation peaked in late 2022, rates in 2023 are expected to remain higher than usual in many parts of the world. Following the 8.8% global inflation rate in 2022, the IMF forecasts a 6.6% rate for 2023 and 4.3% rate for 2024 based on their most recent January 2023 update.
For the optimists, the good news is that the double-digit inflation that characterized nearly half the world in 2022 is expected to be less prevalent this year. For the pessimists, on the other hand, looking at countries like Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Turkey, and Poland may suggest that we are far from out of the woods on a global scale.
Here are the countries with the highest forecasted inflation rates in 2023.
Country / Region | Projected Annual Inflation % Change 2023 |
---|---|
๐ฟ๐ผ Zimbabwe | 204.6% |
๐ป๐ช Venezuela | 195.0% |
๐ธ๐ฉ Sudan | 76.9% |
๐ฆ๐ท Argentina | 76.1% |
๐น๐ท Turkiye | 51.2% |
๐ฎ๐ท Islamic Republic of Iran | 40.0% |
๐ฑ๐ฐ Sri Lanka | 29.5% |
๐ช๐น Ethiopia | 28.6% |
๐ธ๐ท Suriname | 27.2% |
๐ธ๐ฑ Sierra Leone | 26.8% |
๐ธ๐ธ South Sudan | 21.7% |
๐ญ๐น Haiti | 21.2% |
๐ฌ๐ญ Ghana | 20.9% |
๐ต๐ฐ Pakistan | 19.9% |
๐ณ๐ฌ Nigeria | 17.3% |
๐พ๐ช Yemen | 17.1% |
๐ฒ๐ผ Malawi | 16.5% |
๐ต๐ฑ Poland | 14.3% |
๐ฒ๐ฉ Moldova | 13.8% |
๐ฒ๐ฒ Myanmar | 13.3% |
๐ญ๐บ Hungary | 13.3% |
๐ง๐พ Belarus | 13.1% |
๐ฐ๐ฌ Kyrgyz Republic | 12.4% |
๐ฌ๐ณ Guinea | 12.2% |
๐ฒ๐ณ Mongolia | 12.2% |
๐ช๐ฌ Egypt | 12.0% |
๐ฆ๐ด Angola | 11.8% |
๐ฐ๐ฟ Kazakhstan | 11.3% |
๐ธ๐น Sรฃo Tomรฉ and Prรญncipe | 11.2% |
๐ท๐ด Romania | 11.0% |
๐บ๐ฟ Uzbekistan | 10.8% |
๐ฆ๐ฟ Azerbaijan | 10.8% |
๐น๐ฒ Turkmenistan | 10.5% |
๐ธ๐ฐ Slovak Republic | 10.1% |
๐จ๐ฌ Democratic Republic of the Congo | 9.8% |
๐ฟ๐ฒ Zambia | 9.6% |
๐ช๐ช Estonia | 9.5% |
๐ฒ๐ช Montenegro | 9.2% |
๐ง๐ฉ Bangladesh | 9.1% |
๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom | 9.0% |
While the above countries fight to sustain their purchasing power, some parts of the world are expected to continue faring exceptionally well against the backdrop of a widespread cost-of-living crisis. Many Asian countries, notably Japan, Taiwan, and China, are all predicted to see inflation lower than 3% in the upcoming year.
When it comes to low inflation, Japan in particular stands out. With strict price controls, negative interest rates, and an aging population, the country is expected to see an inflation rate of just 1.4% in 2023.
Inflation Drivers
While rising food and energy prices accounted for much of the inflation we saw in 2022, the IMF’s World Economic Outlook highlights that core inflation, which excludes food, energy, transport and housing prices, is now also a major driving factor in high inflation rates around the world.
What makes up core inflation exactly? In this case, it would include things like supply chain cost pressures and the effects of high energy prices slowly trickling down into numerous industries and trends in the labor market, such as the availability of jobs and rising wages. As these macroeconomic factors play out throughout 2023, each can have an effect on inflation.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are also still at play in this yearโs inflation forecasts. While the latter mainly played out in China in 2022, the possible resurgence of new variants continues to threaten economic recovery worldwide, and the war persists in leaving a mark internationally.
The confluence of macroeconomic factors currently at play is unlike what weโve seen in a long time. Though the expertise of forecasters can give us a general understanding, how they will actually play out is for us to wait and see.
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