- Definition – Inflation – Inflation is a sustained rise in the cost of living and average price level.
- Causes Inflation – Inflation is caused by excess demand in the economy, a rise in costs of production, rapid growth in the money supply.
- Costs of Inflation – Inflation causes decline in value of savings, uncertainty, confusion and can lead to lower investment.
- Measuring Inflation – Inflation is measured by CPI and RPI. It is calculated by finding a typical basket of goods. Giving a weighting to goods and measuring price changes every year.
- Problems measuring inflation – why it can be hard to measure inflation with changing goods.
- Different types of inflation – cost-push inflation, demand-pull inflation, wage-price spiral,
- How to solve inflation. Policies to reduce inflation, including monetary policy, fiscal policy and supply-side policies.
- Trade off between inflation and unemployment. Is there a trade-off between the two, as Phillips Curve suggests?
- The relationship between inflation and the exchange rate – Why high inflation can lead to a depreciation in the exchange rate.
- What should the inflation target be? – Why do government typically target inflation of 2%
- Deflation – why falling prices can lead to negative economic growth.
- Monetarist Theory – Monetarist theory of inflation emphasises the role of the money supply.
- Criticisms of Monetarism – A look at whether the monetarist theory holds up to real-world scenarios.
- Money Supply – What the money supply is.
- Can we have economic growth without inflation?
- Predicting inflation
- Link between inflation and interest rates
- Should low inflation be the primary macroeconomic objective?
See also notes on Unemployment