HSBC's Green says Asian demand to spur inflation

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Rising demand for commodities and energy from rapidly growing Asian economies could mean inflation will become a long-term problem for central banks, Stephen Green, group chairman of HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) said on Friday.

Green, who runs the world's second largest bank by market capitalization, said the rising clout of Asian economies will shift financial power from Wall Street and London, and support high prices for the commodities and energy needed for growing Asian economies.

"Prices are going to be pretty firm compared with the previous couple of decades because you've got major new demand coming on stream year by year," he said in a speech to a business audience at the Spruce Meadows equestrian facility in the Western Canadian city of Calgary.

But that demand, which will grow steadily as rural populations in China and other countries continue their migration into cities, will create inflation issues, he told reporters after his speech.

"Growing demand for supply-constrained commodities and energy is going to mean that inflation is going to be around as a management issue for central banks for a long time to come," Green said.

But the growth of Asia's emerging economies will also shift the world's financial center of gravity east, Green told the audience.

"Wall Street will no longer be the center of the universe," he said, adding that London will lose market share but still grow as the global economy expands.

(Reporting by Scott Haggett; editing by Rob Wilson)