Olaf Sleijpen: Geopolitics, trade uncertainty and inflation - chimera or reality?

Good afternoon everyone,

Thank you for inviting me. It is an honour to be here, at this distinguished research institute.

I'm an economist. Probably like many of you here.

As economists, we are trained to take complex situations and break them down into their different components.

We separate economic forces into distinct channels. We distinguish between what is temporary and what is persistent. And we try to understand how these elements interact.

It is, in many ways, a habit we apply quite broadly.

One could imagine an economist confronted with a monster- and instinctively trying to decompose it into its parts.

A monster like- the Chimera.

The Chimera is a mythological creature that is part lion, part goat, and part serpent. It combines the most dangerous traits of each.

And that makes it difficult to confront.