Larry Fink Sees Elevated Inflation for Years Due to Supply Shocks

(Bloomberg) — BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said he expects inflation to remain elevated for several years primarily because of snarled global supply chains.

Most Read from Bloomberg

“It’s been aggravated by Covid and lockdowns in different parts of the world,” Fink, 69, said Thursday in a wide-ranging interview on “The Close” on Bloomberg Television. “It’s more supply driven.”

The world’s largest asset manager, which oversaw about $9.6 trillion as of March 31, is navigating a world beset by surging inflation, rising interest rates and geopolitical upheaval. Fink had previously said the war in Ukraine created profound changes to the global economy, forcing companies and governments to reconsider their reliance on foreign markets and spend more to boost their capabilities locally.

The Federal Reserve doesn’t have the tools on its own to fix supply problems across the economy, Fink said in the interview, predicting market volatility to continue. Inflation also is likely to remain elevated as the economy transitions to greener sources of energy, he said.

Companies have been volunteering more information about their emissions this year, Fink said, and BlackRock doesn’t support prescriptive shareholder resolutions on climate policy. He noted that asset managers shouldn’t be responsible for ensuring their portfolio firms are doing their part to protect the planet.

“I don’t want to be the environmental police,” Fink said. “It’s wrong to ask the private sector” to take on such a role, he said.

The interview came a day after JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon warned investors to prepare for an economic “hurricane” and challenges including tighter US monetary policy as the Federal Reserve seeks to tame inflation that had been running at its hottest in four decades. Earlier Thursday, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. President John Waldron echoed Dimon, predicting tougher economic times ahead.

Story continues

Read more: Dimon Says Bank Is Bracing Itself for Economic ‘Hurricane’

“We are going to have bouts of fear” that will create more market turmoil, Fink said, but “we have not witnessed huge asset allocation changes by our investors.”

(Updates with Federal Reserve in fourth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.