BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said on Monday that inflation in the United States will be elevated by nationalistic policies, including the deportation of workers.
The head of the U.S. investment management company, speaking at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, added that markets are discounting inflation and there will be further cost increases over the next six to nine months.
“I think if we all are becoming a little more nationalistic – and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, you know, it does resonate with me – that it’s going to have elevated inflation,” he said.
Fink said he believed, for example, that mass deportations could lead to problems in the agriculture sector.
“Are we going to have enough workers to harvest this now?” he said. “I’ve even told members of the Trump team that we’re going to run out of electricians that we need to build out AI data centers. We just don’t have enough.”
The Trump administration has also been threatening hefty tariffs on trade partners, which industry groups warn could sharply raise import costs.
“When I go to Washington, when they talk about these policies, at what cost are you willing to tolerate that?” Fink said.
(Reporting by David French and Marianna Parraga in Houston Editing by Marguerita Choy)