Despite a relatively strong ongoing recovery from the coronavirus pandemic from an economic standpoint, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report this month that tempers expectations in the coming months.
According to the report, the OCED has lowered its growth expectation for the United States. Originally at 6.7%, it has been lowered 0.7% to an even 6% for 2021. The worldwide forecasts fell as well, down 0.1% from May to 5.7%.
The report cited several contributing causes for the lowered expectations, but notably said, "Large differences in vaccination rates between countries are adding to the unevenness of the recovery. Renewed outbreaks of the virus are forcing some countries to restrict activities, resulting in bottlenecks and pressures on supply chains."
The report also mentioned that the increase in demand for goods from reopening economies has driven up prices of oil and metals. Shipping costs have increased, as have food prices in emerging markets. Another potential problem area in the report was raised inflation expectations for the rest of 2021 for the U.S., but it's expected that inflation will ease to a lower rate following widespread vaccination against COVID-19.