Meaning and Measurement of Inflation

Inflation is a situation in which a decline in the purchasing power of money results in a rise of the general price level. Its opposite is deflation. Prices in some markets (e.g. pocket calculators) can fall even in times of inflation, and prices in some markets (e.g. medical care) rise even in times of deflation. But it is not the change in individual prices that determines the extent to which an economy is experiencing inflation or deflation. It is the upward or downward movement in the average prices of all goods and services combined that determines the extent of inflation or deflation. In other words, inflation is an increase in the overall average level of prices and not an increase in the price of any specific product. An extreme form of inflation is known as hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is an extremely rapid rise in the general price level. There is no consensus on when a particular rate of inflation becomes " hyper."

The boundary between inflation and deflation is price stability. Price stability occurs when the average level of prices is moving neither up nor down. The average level of prices is called the price level and is measured by a price index. A price index measures the average level of prices in one period as a percentage of their average level in an earlier period called the base period.

The inflation rate is the percentage change in the price level. The most widely reported measure of inflation is the consumer price index (CPI) which measures changes in the average prices of consumer goods and services. It includes only consumer goods and services in order to determine how rising prices affect the income of consumers and does not consider items purchased by businesses, and government.

As the price level rises during inflation, the same sum of money (a dollar, a rouble) buys fewer goods and services than before. Hence, inflation reduces the money real purchasing power. As the price level falls during deflation, a dollar (a rouble) buys more goods and services than before. Hence, deflation increases the money real purchasing power.

Inflation hurts people living on fixed money incomes and people who have saved fixed amounts of money for specific purposes such as financing their children's education or their own retirement. Inflation hurts people who have loaned out money at a rate of interest that did not include an allowance for an increase in the average price level. So lenders are without protection against a decline in the purchasing power of the loan when it is repaid.

The adverse effects of inflation depend on the extent to which inflation is correctly anticipated and the extent to which it is unanticipated. If inflation is correctly anticipated, contracts can be negotiated to include “ inflation premiums”. Such premiums are designed to protect lenders and other recipients of future money payments from declines in the purchasing power of the money to be repaid to them. Lenders, for example, will insist on higher interest rates if they anticipate inflation; and the greater the inflation they anticipate, the higher the rate of interest they will ask. Borrowers who agree to the lender's terms presumably share similar anticipations of inflation. However, it is often difficult to correctly anticipate a future rate of inflation.

Inflation is a phenomenon experienced in all countries. But inflation rates vary from one country to another. When inflation rates differ by a lot and over a prolonged period of time, the result is a change in the foreign exchange value of money.