The US has emerged as the most mentioned country in the discussions around ‘inflation’ among the top 15 countries based on social media conversations of Twitter influencers and Redditors in 2022 (as on 27 September), reveals the Social Media Analytics Platform of GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

For the US, the highest surge in social media discussions around inflation was recorded in September when the US monthly CPI increased by 8.1% in August, beating the market expectation of dipping down. Another sharp rise in social media discussions was noticed in July, when the monthly CPI in June rises to 9.1%, the highest level in four decades.

Smitarani Tripathy, Social Media Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Global economy is suffering from surging inflation, driven by the excessive monetary and fiscal stimulus, and COVID-19 pandemic-related supply bottlenecks. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has further exacerbated the situation. Inflation in the US is rising due to soaring energy and food prices. Meanwhile, the economic decision makers are creating an inflation-targeting framework by increasing the interest rates. In line with this, most of the influencers are of the opinion that the consecutive rise in interest rate by the Federal Reserve may lead to a recession.”

The US is followed by the UK, China, Canada, India, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Australia, France, Spain, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Italy and Pakistan.

The UK is the second most mentioned country among the social media discussions around ‘inflation’ in 2022. The annual consumer price inflation in the UK reached 10.1% in July, the highest since 1982, which led to a sharp rise in social media discussions. Most of the Twitter influencers are expecting the Bank of England to increase the interest rate further this year, which is likely to push the country into recession.

Sri Lanka has shown the highest growth in inflation-related conversations on social media during 2022, when compared to the previous year. The economy has been grappling with rising inflation, which has already touched its historical high of above 70% in August.