High inflation is a frightening phenomenon.

Depreciation creates the feeling that valuable things are slipping through your fingers like sand.

Inflation increases fears that current living standards are becoming unaffordable.

Then the human tendency to hoard arises, with worries being collectively reinforced by one's own behavior.

It is therefore advisable to counter this feeling with a number of facts.

First of all, the current inflation in the euro zone is mainly driven by energy price increases.

This is annoying, but probably temporary: the winter will end, even if tensions between Russia and Ukraine do not resolve in the short term.

In addition, the high number is partly just a statistical effect.

In November 2021, prices increased by 4.9 percent compared to November 2020. In November 2020, energy prices contributed to a decrease in the price level.

The rise in energy costs is not to be downplayed, but that 4.9 percent partially reflects a 2020 denominator effect.

Home office reduces demand

Finally, the fact that we are in a new wave of the pandemic is a cause that demand for fuel will fall.

Working from home will bring the price down.

This will relieve people with lower incomes.

When we look at the other categories of inflation, we're mostly talking about manufactured goods and services.

Today's wave of the pandemic is reducing consumption of services that require contact.

Freight rates have skyrocketed in the past year.

The reasons for this were the many production and delivery bottlenecks in container transport, closed ports and lack of water in places where chip factories are located.

In December 2021, supply chains started to recover, but Omikron will slow down this recovery again.

This means that commodity prices could still rise sharply in the first half of 2022, and with it inflation.

More importantly, the source of this surge - supply chain issues - is temporary.

China is already beginning to relax the zero-tolerance policy.

Ports and other production areas in China will therefore no longer come to a standstill so easily.

One of the main factors behind persistent inflation is the wage-price spiral: if wages in Europe rise with inflation, the additional consumption will push prices back up and give unions an argument for further wage increases. Negotiated wages have fallen to 1.4 percent since Corona. In 2022 and 2023 we expect that higher wages will be agreed. But this is more of a catch-up growth. There is no evidence of strong wage growth.

Ultimately, the question remains as to why inflation in America is likely to lead to a rise in central bank interest rates and the ECB to stand still in 2022.

The US economy is already working above capacity and Omicron will not create another lockdown either.

This means that the current labor shortage will continue to increase and a wage-price spiral is quite possible.

In addition, the consumer behavior of Americans differs greatly from that of Europeans.

Since the pandemic, America has been showing excessive commodity consumption.

Omikron will amplify this even further, so that the emerging countries could not keep up with the demand.

Wave of infection inhibits service sector

In Europe, which is still operating below capacity, a drop in demand could well offset the inflationary impact of global supply problems.

First of all, the consumption of services in Europe falls sharply during a wave of infections.

Some people are switching to online consumption, but Europeans are not compensating for the decline in the affected areas as much as Americans.

Instead, Europeans will save heavily when they can.

Once the wave of infections subsides, the disinflationary forces in the European economy will resurface.

Inflation makes life more expensive, but additional savings of an estimated €350 billion ease the burden. Added to this are wage increases and rising property values, which are helping to bear the burden of inflation. All of this makes us pretty resilient for the tough times that may yet come. However, there is one major concern. The average resilience hides a large scatter. Those not on permanent contracts are far more likely to be caught between two chairs by European policies that support jobs rather than income. This group is unlikely to have the buffers that come from additional savings, home appreciation, or wage growth. And so has the gulf between thosewho accumulate security and increase it again for those for whom that security is unattainable.

The author is chief economist at ABN Amro Bank