Economist Mohamed El-Erian Warns Inflation Could Hit 9%

Appearing Sunday on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser to Allianz, warned that inflation in the United States could reach 9 percent.

A transcript is as follows: 

JOHN DICKERSON: There was some hope in some quarters, it may have been motivated reasoning, but there was some hope that inflation might be turning around, might be getting- the picture might be getting better. So give us your sense, was that hope misplaced? Or is this a sign of how hard it is to predict where we are in the economy at this moment?

MOHAMED EL-ERIAN: It’s both. There was hope initially, that it is transitory, meaning temporary and quickly reversible. There was hope, as you pointed out, that it had peaked. I never shared those hopes. I think you’ve got to be very modest about what we know about this inflation process. And I fear that it’s still going to get worse, we may well get to 9 percent at this rate.