wiggle they might have a vaccinations keep their jobs. he shouldn't have been given a visa until we knew exactly what his status was and what he's been doing. but equally, you know, once he's, he wasn't really very polite to just walk him up. i don't like his arrogance. i don't fear i feel he's come across as an he's above it all. but it does feel like we have um ah, stuffed up on our side. and i so it's a, it's a bit of a mess. ah, it is good to have you with us. hello, adrian finnegan here in dough. how the headlines and al jazeera inflation in the united states is increased to levels not seen in 40 years with the price surge affecting almost everything purchased by consumers and businesses. the white house is blaming disruptions to the global supply chain, but inflation is a growing political risk for the democrats, as republicans continue to blame stimulus measures for overheating the economy. the

world health organization says that over 15000000 people contract cove at 19 over the past week, which is higher than at any time during the entire pandemic. it's more than 50 percent higher than the previous 7 days of the w h. o says the number of deaths is rising. let's be clear. while army kron caused less severe disease than delta, it remains a dangerous bias, particularly for those who are unvaccinated, almost 50000 days or so week is 50000 does too many. in the u. s, the number of people in the hospital has gone up by as much as 33 percent and deaths by around 40 percent in the past week. health officials expect cases driven by the omicron variant to peak in coming weeks. on monday the u. s. reported more than 1300000 new infections, the highest ever daily tally for any country in the world. britain's prime minister

is facing growing pressure to resign after admitting that he attended a garden party in downing street during the lockdown in 2024. as johnston says, he thought it was a work related event. he apologized to the nation on wednesday. a high stakes meeting between russia, nato over ukraine has ended without a break. through the head of nato says that he won't allow moscow's a veto. ukraine's wishes to join the block a lawsuit against britons. prince andrew is moving forward in the us after a judge rejected efforts to dismiss a sex abuse claim. virginia jeffrey says that she was 17 years old when she was trafficked, to have sex with the u. k. royal prince. andrew's lawyers tried to have the case thrown out. so i think a 2009 deal she signed with a convicted sex offender, jeffrey epstein. and those were headlines, more news fiance's era after counting the cost next. ah,

mm mm mm mm mm. mm. pool. frank assessments this gracious, he's continued to weaken luca shenker,

even though perhaps he believes in the beginning that he wants banker informed opinions. i think politicians will now be under incredible pressure from their young people. that is one of the most helpful things to come out of this critical debate. do you think i should be facilitated? not sure. okay, it's a great. it's a really simple question. let's give samuel a child swans that inside story on al jazeera. ah, a hello. i'm darren jordan, this is counting the cost on al jazeera, your weekly look at the world of business and economics. this week 2021 a year of economic recovery, but also a year supply chain bottlenecks, soaring inflation, and army kron. so would it be

a bumpy road in the next 12 months, or will it be a year of progress? also this week a downturn and the property sector and energy supply crunch and subdued consumption . john is economy ground to a halt towards the end of 2021 critic say it could hit a great bull. so will it too big to be ignored by the financial establishment crypto currencies of hit 3 trillion dollars in value and, and now becoming mainstream. will the virtual money see a big here again in 2022. now mass vaccinations progress and antiviral drugs and eased restrictions. 2021 has proved em opportunity for many countries to reverse economic losses caused by the pandemic . but opening up businesses and going back to normal life has brought new bras, setbacks to such as the rising cost of living. despite the challenges, hopes are running high for the new year until the army kron variant and access to vaccines. change the calculus once again. so wants to come in 2022. we'll let's

have a look 1st at what define 2021 from china, the world's factory to the biggest port in california ships queued at hob was overwhelmed with the rise in demand. supply chains tightened. either because of the shortage of goods or people to deliver them. natural gas, oil, and other fuel markets was squeezed. driving an energy crisis, particularly in europe, eating homes and driving cars became very costly. with that came soaring inflation, that's curbing the purchasing power of people on low wages. the u. s. as seen, its worst monthly inflation numbers. in almost 40 years. many governments have been scratching their heads of a monetary policies to tackle the problems among the options off raising interest rates and winding down stimulus packages. well, so china, it was not just a problem of supply chains and the energy crunch its property sector is at risk to with real estate giant. ever grand. on the verge of collapse,

china's economic growth weakened in the 3rd quarter of 2021. president shing pings critic say new rules to control the amount owed by big, real estate developers. the crackdown on tech companies and celebrities at proven costly for the economy. well, china and other countries also busy trying to tame crypto currencies, while pushing plans to issued their own digital coins. meanwhile, bitcoin and others were going big, even with a volatile market. the virtual current system hit 3 trillion dollars, and most importantly, they've gone mainstream with many international investors, embracing them. so there's lots to unpack with a panel of experts from london below how fees micro hi, chief executive from the town. i've been out. medina, pueblo in spain, him and blanco research director and had a risk insights. america at various maple craft and from hong kong, russia decide, fund manager at asia frontier capitol, welcome to the program. let me start with you. if i may, i mean i'm

a chrome. seems to be the buzzword at the moment. do you think governments are reacting to every twist and turn of the pandemic can all be going to see more adaptation policies as the pandemic changes? well, i do think governments are reacting very dynamically around be on the kron variant . and it's interesting that different countries are responding differently. so for example, what we have seen is in continental europe, a governments have been very aggressive and introduced lockdown measures, requirements vaccine, passports, and then use the u. k. on the other hand, initially was fairly relaxed and as the cases have gone up, they've started to introduce more aggressive measures. then on the other side, you have the u. s, which essentially is minimizing the risk off on the cross and not really introducing any additional measures beyond recommendations to have the bank seen. so we often governance response, but it varies depending which part of the world that we're in. yeah, him and what about latin america? how is the pandemic impacting economies there?

do you think? well, i mean, i think with latin america, there's very few tools left to be used tried because the region responded in such a draconian manner during 2020 and early 2021. that actually implementing many of the same measures that western europe is, is taking, would be socially, economically and politically very difficult. i mean, economically, the region was the hardest hit of any region in the world and recovery prospects are slimming down. so if we think about, you know, some economies will return to pre plan that make g d p levels in 2023. but that's the best case scenario. we have economies that are looking at a potential another last decade. so that has huge social impact. government aren't able to dictate quarantine and school closures, like they did in 2020. and also we have crucial elections in 2022 with some of the,

the biggest democracies in the region going to the polls. so thinking about how pandemic measures can impact incumbents or traditional political leads is clearly front and center of any government. the session. the region does have one advantage at the moment, which is south america is in, in the southern hemisphere, summer. so cases are lower and age and rates are lower than they were in the north and russia what, what's the full cost them for growth in asia? i mean, we're on the chrome, have more impact there. as countries like south korea, for instance, impose tighter pandemic restrictions when, if you look at most of the developing markets initially much marcus, an issue, i think with respect to the band and majority of the all the convert into a future variance. i think most of the governments in the region have basically decided to live with the widest given the fact that in our, in to be a rental authority off the of the vendor makes you had pretty strict restrictions and doesn't 20th on so for large, but doesn't $21.00 because that

a logical only goes across across markets in asia, for example, india and vietnam and thailand as well. and at the same time you for vaccination rates of increase significantly across pretty much most countries in the world. for example, the entire exhibition of population of 2 percent. so that actually has been the open of the gone business situation much better. so as long as in horse prospect, vision levels under control and things are not as bad as well. the 1021 for the dividend of it and i think most economies will manage situation. they won't be locked on on a large scale because the common cause. busy they do, i so i think we'll see pretty strong regarding 2022 of almost markinson in emerging markets. an issue. so below the big issue in 2021. our supply chain backlogs, and labor shortages has on the chrome. do you think not the supply chain back on its heels and what's going to happen to consumer prices and wages for 2022? absolutely, supply chain issues are probably front incentives. one of the biggest issues, and i think on the con, will have an impact on the supply chain. that said,

i don't think the effect will be as large as it was when we had the delta wave. i think manufacturing companies and factories of adapted to big increases in the toby variance and so on. but nevertheless, as we do have restrictions in multiple countries, they'll be restrictions at ports and so on. that that at the margin will have an impact on the supply chain. as a whole, i'd also add that china itself tends to be a bit more aggressive in dealing with outbreaks off cove it. so if china was to lock down ports or cities associated with the important factories and that will have an impact on the supply chain. so yes, it will have an impact on the supply chain, but not as much as it did before. yeah, russia. let's just stay with china because china's economy bounce back from the pandemic in 2020 but it weakened in the 3rd quarter of 2021. what do you think went wrong with china and what risks does it face in the year ahead? do you think a couple of fact of the china so that you can actually mentioned the handle of the

enemy pretty well and 2020 and a stronger cover doesn't 20 as well in 2021. you know, given the fact that china has pretty much as you go forward of policy in terms of, you know, keeping, with cases extremely low of, i know what the large number of cases or breaks the. obviously i don't, you don't exempt infect. she's all sorts of hassle. she was in place, which really impacted growth this years. if you look at retail, says the white being pretty much across the board to serve both of these institutions that have been in place. and also of course, if you look at some of the other developments in china and speak with the tech, don't just have been in the past almost one year now, which affected the world and sentiment in china and also other sectors. like, for example, i was just in construction, the government has gone on pretty hard on that centers, whatever the spectrum kind of is also affecting the auto g people because the, those it is a large part of the economy in china. so these are some of the headwinds to face this year, but i think if you look at, in general, you know, just the size, the trying to call me this is a psychological and being over. busy you know,

as the transitions of a strong i growth. busy infrastructure led more. busy into more so this is lash consumption model. there will be some or a long delay. but that does not mean that your child is going to see a significant other load on the war into a global economy. will common question because i think if you look at extra expectations for growth, about 5 percent for the next couple of years, i think that's where he's the bill for the sales manager. call me him. and let me ask you a question about china. i mean, could china's economic worries be beneficial? do you think to smaller economies? because cobra 19 indeed has highlighted the risk of concentrating supply chains in china, hasn't it? of course. and i mean, latin america has a huge role to play for potential near shoring for us manufacturers. right. and that was the bus word since the beginning of the pandemic, right? could companies relocate to the region, but that doesn't come, you know, without its own challenges around logistical infrastructure,

around human rights issues, which are also prevalent in latin america and around the cost of doing business in the region and the bureaucracy and overcoming some of those country risks of investing in latin america. so of course there's, you know, a strong emphasis from words and governments, particularly those with very close commercial links to the united states and with existing manufacturing infrastructure to increase on that. but this will be a very uneven development in terms of which countries from benefits or not from near assuring as a result of the supply chain disruption. yeah, i believe so. let's talk about the u. s. then because president biden's facing the highest inflation levels and around for 2 years or so, will the fed be able to bring rates down the how can i quickly do that? well indeed, present button has face the big inflation challenge. and unlike previous instances, i do think the administration, the bargaining ministration has been partly responsible for, for the high inflation rate. but we are seeing in the u. s. and i think the central

bank only has a limited role or, or less been impacted with it, as one would think on the level of inflation. because as we talked about earlier, supply chain issues are one of the biggest issues in causing inflation. and what caused the supply chain issues partly was to do with the fiscal stimulus that the president might biden. and his administration implemented over the course of 2021, which led to a huge increase in demand for consumer goods at a time when the supply issues, then some way these policies were big contributing factors towards inflation rather than interest rates by the fed. so i think more more supply chain issues will be the key to for coughing, inflation of the course of 2022 rather than what the central bank does. ok, and so here now, how could interest rates then affect emerging markets? and how will i deal of debt, especially when we could see a sharp rise in the cost of capital? yes, absolutely. i mean, we're already seeing it with, you know,

expectations of us rate hikes, impacting currencies across latin america with significant false on on currencies. and the reality is that central banks in the region have also a very limited toolbox because of the size of the, you know, of them off the books economy in the region. so even when they talk monetary tools to try to contain inflation or to protect their own currencies, those only have limited impact. and i think, you know, the supply chain disruptions that we're talking about here in the law mention also impacted latin america feeding into inflation. not only because of the expansionary measures that most central banks took during the initial response to the pandemic. but also because it was very hard to maintain logistical rocha into the region. russia, let me bring you in quickly here, just a, just a thought on china again, because china says it will focus on stabilizing its economy for 2020,

to can to achieve that, or will it struggle to achieve any sort of meaningful economic growth for 2022, well, absolutely, i mean if you look at all the economic indicators they've been, you know, showing us stored on or the last couple of quarters and even the, you know, some of the comments you made that policy makers have been that they'll be for fiscal and monetary policy support. busy you know, sort of go to close in 22. and also if you, if you remember that, you know, china went to the banner, they're going to bring their hand and labanic and everybody, well. so they didn't really have to come up with any major fiscal montes or. busy it doesn't 20 compared to some of the logic. one reason like the u. s. of the u. k . so that they have enough room joy on board modernity and also kind of space to support both into those $22.00 and below. let's bring you back in here because you're in london's, let's talk about the situation in europe. inflation. is it not? it's, it's, it's challenging european central banks. could we say governments then, perhaps winding down this stimulus packages?

i think we will and if we take the euro area and e b as essentially b did have its own q program, like we've seen around the world, it's called path. and that's likely to be wound down by february of march of 2022. but they're likely to extend that q program into, by expanding another q program. they have called the asset purchase program a t p. and at the same time, it's very unlikely that e, c, b will raise interest rates unlike the fed. and the reason for that is the c, b has been scarred in the past by raising interest rates when inflation has spite of the back of supply chain issues. so, so i think york does have an inflation problem. it's partly to do the global supply chain issues. it's partly to do with high oil prices, but i don't think the c b will respond as aggressively as other central banks. i'm him it out many latin american central banks followed brazil and increase their test rates. what are the risks involved briefly to the region by raising rates? and i mean, how can governments protect the occurrences? well, i mean, the, the key risk is,

is actually that governments are reacting very quickly, but they may be unable to use rates just to contain inflation. and we're looking at record levels of inflation in over a decade in most of the large economies. and i would say in terms of, you know, protecting the currency again, very limited tool box and major economies. i would watch brazil in 2022 simply because the, the got the countries heading into a general election with high inflation rates potential for this content. and of course, the rail having had a turbulent 2021. so i think that's the market to watch in terms of currency. so, so let's just move the discussion on to big tech bill. i'll, let's bring your back in here because china has pretty much tamed. it's tech giants like alibaba and dd, but western tech companies like facebook and google for instance, are still fighting with the regulators. aren't they?

will 2022. do you think c, western tech giants come into more regulatory pressure? you think? i do think there will be much more regulatory pressure from especially the west and also the europeans against tech companies. to some extent, will the chinese have done against loss. tech companies is what many people, many critics of tech companies, what the us to do. so the chinese have tamed many chinese tech companies in terms of how the whole day when so on. the difference though, in the case of the u. s. is that the tech genes are very powerful and they have very large market cap. they're very influential, politically. and in some, some extent they're viewed as examples of the u. s. success story. so while i think the u. s. will try to tame them. it will be very hard for them to actually implement regulations that will curtail that ability to expand that businesses. the europeans, on the other hand, i think, will continue to implement policies at local i to constrain tech companies. and

bruce here, let's talk to you now about renewable energy because the rest of the world is starting to make the shift to renewables. and that's much harder, is it not for developing nations who don't have the money? they haven't got the technology. what kind of progress do you think we'll see in climate policies to help poor countries do thing? i think if you look at, you know, developing markets and he showed this part of the world, i mean the, i'm going to add some movie in energy projects, for example, focusing on investing in no wind power. busy and in also follow doesn't only days because like you mentioned, the cost more to transition from fossil fuels on to energy is quite high for many of these countries. so yes, there's an initiative that doesn't take time at the same time. if you keep in mind that many was gone, is a bring by 6 percent the same percent every year annually boss pandemic. also, they will require a lot of the same dam. i know for them putting up, you know, a whole lot of land is obviously much cheaper and makes much more economic sense. and the st of either the same time is investing in doing energy. so yes, it'll take some time. but the big, big, big deal moves and also for example, electric vehicles. i mean that's a big team in the restaurant on china but also other in other parts of asia for

example, in deal on. busy the southeast asia and the again the cost the cost involved. busy to transition to these old energy him and the other big story, of course, is crypto currencies. they've had a big year. we saw el salvador become the 1st country to adopt bitcoin as legal, tender. let me ask you, are crypto coming, sees an opportunity or a danger for latin america? you think? i think it provides an opportunity for countries, governments that want to use them with a politically motivated goal. and i think that's, you know, we're seeing that clearly without salvatore. we have seen other moves in the region with intentions to adopt the cryptic currencies to avoid transactions in us dollars . and of course, you know, i think this is very much linked to the political changes that seeing in the region and the return of governments that are potentially trying to use, you know, the us china competition to move away from us influence. and so i think that is,

that will be key in determining how crypt currencies behave in latin american, the future, it will be ideologically motivated. yeah. and bill, our regulators have been trying to re encrypt, so we're looking to launch their own centralized digital currencies. tech companies like amazon and facebook are talking about launching their own virtual occurrences . how do you think briefly this 3 way fight will play out in 20? 22. i think if we step back for a moment crypto markets have become much larger and much more st. polish, so i think to some extent, to ginnie's out of 3rd bottle now and we'll see you know, a growth in all of these markets quite aggressively. i do think that the, the crit to market themselves outside of laws, private companies will probably end up doing the best to some extent, they'll see the fastest growth. i think they'll be big regulatory challenges against large tech companies like facebook, launching their own currencies. and that's what central banks, i think just the nature of central banks who tend to be quite cautious. they'll

have review launching the own digital currencies, but i think they'll take a lot longer to actually implement them. and instead it will be smaller countries, whether it's in latin america, others that will probably be the pioneers of launching central bank, digital digital currencies. russia, in terms of the growth in the digital economy. what are the opportunities then for asian countries? and will it benefit from a shift in supply chains? do you think those of the, you know, digital economy or the shippers, the digital combination countries, you know, also try and i think the opportunities use because the, the base is so small, i mean, the transition levels and the smartphone. but it was only increasingly many modern looking to philippines, indonesia, so it's a, so a lot is the going from. so i think opportunity is used for many of the slot is also many of these markets. so economies of any cash buyers and the, and the band. and because obviously change because you know, the last for me and you know, 24 months as you can see more, you know, more consumer zisha dorn language is, is, are doing many of the transitions online. so i think is a massive opportunity for many asian countries. on to the extent of georgia sector

and also from the supply chain distribution perspective, i think that the a big t boned so that his father will because that only that began much before the banner began. that's only was when you can actually read going forward as well. let me, let me get a final quick thought from all of you before we wrap things up. and bill our, let me ask you, does the road to global economic recovery start with equal access to vaccines? and i'll be looking at economic bloom or doom for 2022. well, i do agree, i do think vaccines hold a key to managing or ending the pandemic and equal access will be critical. because as we've seen over 2021 variance emerging all sorts of countries that if they don't have the vaccine themselves, will end up spreading to richer countries. so i do think, you know, vaccine equality will be key to, to dealing with a pandemic in terms of doom and gloom for the economy. i do think 2022 will be a very challenging year for, for growth. we're going to be seeing the fed raising interest rates, i think ok now has lots of challenges on its growth model. so i think it will be

more on the, on the downside risk side, him not very quickly, equal access to vaccines. is that the key as bell is saying, and i'm looking at bloom or do for 2022. i think absolutely equal access to that scene is crucial. and not just in terms of countries, but regionally with those countries. that's in america. having major challenges geographically getting to most at risk populations in terms of the economy for the region. i think it's more of a blue be picture with the expectations we had in 2020 while actually not being bad at the region, struggling to return to growth. so russia, i'll leave you with the final thought, then is it blue modem for 2022 and is access to vaccines. the key here for economic recovery with respect to actually, and i think this problem, especially emerging market issue vaccine access increased significantly or the last little ones. so you will see vaccination is increase quite significantly pretty

much across the board in the service. you actually have become. busy an issue in 2022. so he has other concerns about inflation, about fundraising rates. is that something that should be known for quite some time now? so i don't see any significant issue doesn't go because if you ones coming off a pretty low. busy is going to be a pretty strong issue at all. well, we have to leave it there. that's all we have time for. thank you to all i guess bill. i'll have fees him and blanco and decide. thank you very much indeed for your time. and that's it. for all show this week, but remember, you can get in touch with us via twitter. use the hashtag a j c t c. when you do or drop us an email counting the cost of al jazeera dot net is our address. but there's more for you on line of al jazeera dot com slash ctc. that'll take you straight to a page which has individual reports, links, an entire episodes for you to catch up on. and that's it for this edition of counting the cost. i'm darn jordan from the whole team here. thanks for joining us . the news and al jazeera is next

ah with americans are increasingly saying authoritarianism might not be so bad. there were

several steps along the way where the chain of command, if you'd like, tried to cover what your take on why they've gotten this so wrong. that means political malpractice, the bottom line on us politics and policy, and the impact on the wealth on al jazeera, ah, inflation in the us, is that a 40 a high as pandemic disruptions force households and businesses to pay more for everything? ah, hello, i'm adrian again. this is al jazeera, alive from doha. also coming up. mr. speaker, i want to apologize. a see now going to take a decent thing and resign pressure amounts of importance prime minister for his johnson to resign.