Page 2 of 23

264

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 2, February-2023

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

INTRODUCTION

A Brief Review of 2022 and the Global Events that Affected Economies

The twelve months of 2022 saw unprecedented events shape the globe. “Future historians may

come to regard 2022 as a hinge in history, marking the end of one era and the beginning of

another” (Lindsay, 2022). What exactly makes 2022 such a pivotal year in history? Many

factors are at the heart of the answer. Political divisiveness and unrest sparked protests and

governmental turnover across the globe as nations shifted across ideological and political

boundaries and populations spoke out against blatant corruption of their political processes

and their leaders (Lindsay, 2022). The conflict between Russia and Ukraine sparked in March

2022, and the corresponding multinational response has led to an unsettling geopolitical

climate and strained supply-chain issues globally (Kim, 2022). Furthermore, continued

ideological conflict between Western nations and the People’s Republic of China which shapes

international political and trade relations has further intensified supply-chain issues and global

tensions as well as incited dialogue of a potential future “World War III” in the event of a Chinese

invasion of Taiwan (Palmer, 2022).

Governmental response to the pandemic and corresponding restrictions which affected

national and global economies have eased in comparison to their 2020-2021 enforcement

levels (Lindsay, 2022); however, the COVID-19 pandemic, previously declared over by United

States President Joe Biden in September of 2022 (Wolf, 2022), has been reinstated as a public

health emergency as of January 11, 2023, and lingering effects of the governmental response to

the pandemic has seen a rise in tensions on intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and

societal levels in the United States and across the globe (Becerra, 2023). And all of these have

played out against a backdrop of increased migration/immigration from third-world to first- world nations exacerbating already strained resources and ideological fractures embedded in

the latter; climate change and the emergent green policies developed to mitigate pollutants and

designed to change the energy and transportation landscape being instated across the globe;

enforcement of community standards and censorship of content by governmental agencies in

collusion with private corporations banning public discussion of topics on specific media

platforms (Picchi, 2022; Porterfield, 2023); and, increases in inflation across the globe (Lindsay,

2022). The purpose of this review is to examine the last factor in the list above affecting the

world during 2022 (and into the present, as of this writing): inflation. Specifically, the paper

will focus on the national and international causes and national-level consequences of inflation

in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

According to the International Monetary Fund, 2022 global inflation is one of the worst

pressures on the global economy since the 1970s. By August 2022, the global inflation rate was

at 7.5% compared to 3.4% in 2020, hence, leading to “a blame game for the rise in inflation”

(Binici et al., 2022). A recent publication by the Harvard Business Review defined inflation as

“Inflation is defined as a rise in prices across an economy, and in 2022 it has emerged as one of

the biggest threats to global prosperity” (Frick, 2022). Below is a graphical representation of

the fluctuations in inflation rates in North America from 2000 to 2027. Inflation rose from 3.4%

in 2021 to 6.9% in 2022 in Canada; from 5.7% in 2021 to 8% in Mexico and from 4.7% in 2021

to 8.1% in 2022 in the USA. However, it is projected that inflation in all three countries will ease

off in 2023 and fall back into the ideal situation by 2024. In order words, it is expected that

North America will see a more ideal economy between 2024 and 2027.