A U.N. agency has warned that a surge in container shipping rates threatens the global economic recovery and could add an additional 1.5 percent to consumer price inflation through 2023. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a Nov. 18 analysis (pdf) that, since the second half of 2020, higher-than-expected demand for containerized goods combined with logistical hurdles and other shipping bottlenecks have driven up freight rates. The agency cited several examples of surging shipping costs, in one case noting a more than 700-percent increase in the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) spot rate on the Shanghai-Europe route. The rate was less than $1,000 per 20-foot equivalent standard container units (TEU) in June 2020, jumping to about $4,000 per TEU by the end of 2020 and, by the end of July 2021, it had vaulted to $7,395. “Unreliable schedules, and port congestion have also led to a …