End of easy money brings with it a $410-billion global financial shock

Inflation is pushing central banks to shrink their balance sheets as they hike interest rates, adding a new risk for the world economy hit by war and lockdowns

The global shift away from easy money is poised to accelerate as a pandemic bond-buying blitz by central banks swings into reverse, threatening another shock to the world’s economies and financial markets.

Bloomberg Economics estimates that policy makers in the Group of Seven countries will shrink their balance sheets by about $410 billion in the remainder of 2022. It’s a stark turnaround from last year, when they added $2.8 trillion — taking the total expansion to more than $8 trillion since Covid-19 arrived.

That wave of monetary support helped prop up economies and asset prices through a pandemic slump. Central banks are