The global shortage of semiconductors has an upside — at least it seems that way to the chief financial officers of BMW and Daimler: it has revealed just how much “pricing power” they have. In future, even once the scarcity of chips eases, the two automakers plan to limit sales of their most premium cars, permanently locking in the higher prices — and boosting inflation.

The comments by the carmaking executives, in an interview with the Financial Times, feed into fears that temporary interruptions to international supply chains will lead to higher prices. The disruptions have causes ranging from pandemic-provoked factory closures and disruptions to global shipping to the after-effects of natural disasters. But a top executive at the logistics chain UPS said this week that multinationals were already retreating from globalisation as a result, shifting production to more expensive but closer locations. This, he said, would lead to permanent scars on the economy.

Sustained higher inflation has been towards the top of investors’ list of worries as the coronavirus pandemic eases. While total spending has been boosted by the combination of high consumer savings, easy monetary policy and government stimulus, the capacity of the economy to supply the goods and services to meet that demand has been harmed by lockdown restrictions and other bottlenecks. Debate between economists has focused on whether these pressures will prove transitory and ease as economies reopened — or whether they will lead to something more permanent and will soon be embedded in long-term expectations.