In the face of widespread quantitative easing and increases in the money supply, some economists and many marketers of precious metals have been warning of very high inflation rates on the horizon.

The CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel expect inflation rates to increase from under 2% in 2011 to almost 4% by 2013 but they are no Cassandras. Far from anticipating high inflation rates, on average they believe that fear of inflation is exaggerated and the gold may be slightly overvalued. The kinds of equity, bond and other investments they recommend today differ little from their recommendations in past years.

These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine.

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