Canadian entrepreneur and TV personality Kevin O’Leary recently gave his take on rising inflation and where he sees costs going. Inflation hit 8.5% in March, a 40-year high, but slowed to 8.3% in April.
The “Shark Tank” panelist partially blamed the current state of inflation on “self-inflicted wounds,” pointing first to high gas costs, which he said the country brought on itself due to "shutting down oil production." However, O’Leary’s assessment conflicts with data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which forecasts that oil production is up from 2021 by 0.7 million barrels per day.
O’Leary also pointed to food prices being up as much as 50% due to broken supply chains.
“Half of this stuff will be tempered as the economy gets back in. I think half the inflation is kind of permanent, but half is supply chain,” O’Leary said.
O’Leary predicted that inflation will likely settle down to roughly 5% at the end of the year. He described the country as being "in a funky place right now,” but said he didn't see a disaster coming and expected inflation to balance itself out.
