ERIC ZHU, an international sales manager at a Chinese forklift-maker, has just sent his second letter of the year to customers, explaining that prices are going up once again. “We need to share some of the price increases with our partners. We cannot absorb them all ourselves,” he says. “The world is crazy now.” Although not standard economics terminology, crazy is a good description for the price movements now coursing through global markets. Inflation in America is running at its fastest since 2008. Energy and commodity prices have soared. And as Mr Zhu can attest, investors and company bosses are worried that China, the world’s workshop, is itself starting to export inflation.

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