March 24, 2010 Reading Time: < 1 minute

“Inflation rates vary from year to year and from currency to currency. Since 1950, the U.S. dollar inflation rate, as measured by the December-to-December change in the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), has ranged from a low of −0.7 percent (1954) to a high of 13.3 percent (1979). Since 1991, the rate has stayed between 1.6 percent and 3.3 percent per year. Since 1950 at least eighteen countries have experienced episodes of hyperinflation, in which the CPI inflation rate has soared above 50 percent per month. In recent years, Japan has experienced negative inflation, or “deflation,” of around 1 percent per year, as measured by the Japanese CPI. Central banks in most countries today profess concern with keeping inflation low but positive. Some specify a target range for the inflation rate, typically 1–3 percent.” Read more.

Inflation
Lawrence H. White
Via the Library of Economics and Liberty.

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