Reuters reports that results of a UBS survey showed that inflation has emerged as one of the top concerns for central bank reserve managers, alongside a failure to end the COVID-19 crisis and soaring debt levels.

Fears about inflation and uncontrolled rises in long-term yields, a risk not flagged by participants at all in last year’s Annual Reserve Manager Survey, were raised by 57% of respondents this year as a main risk to the global economy.

Failure to end the pandemic was cited as a worry by 79% of respondents, with 71% flagging government debt levels.

Reflecting angst about the gravity of COVID-19, half of participants in the survey believe the virus will be over only after 2022.

“Inflation is back at the top of concerns for central bankers,” Massimiliano Castelli, UBS’s head of strategy and advice, global sovereign markets, told.

“The majority is saying they expect a rise, but not sort of moving to very high levels of inflation. So it seems there is a sort of view among the central banking community that the current rising inflation that we are experiencing is transitory.”