Central banks have a choice to make. After the insane bubbles they've blown for the last 20 years, and the government debt created along with that, they can either raise interest rates aggressively and basically bankrupt their countries for a while (this isn't necessarily a catastrophe), or they can inflate away the debt by refusing to raise interest rates.<p>I strongly suspect the only reason the US has been aggressive in rate hikes is because they can do it with the US dollar's reserve status. For the UK, EU, and others, it's not so clear.<p>It might be much easier on governments just to inflate the debt away, it will take longer and won't mean massive crashes. It will mean completely destroying most middle class and upper middle class savings. I think many governments won't mind doing that.