Inflation rate

“ Government economic reforms introduced since 1986 have stabilized exchange rates and have helped to stem inflationary pressures. The inflation rate has dropped from 36.9% in 1986 to 15% in 1989.
GDP: $10.8 billion, per capita $1,185; real growth rate 1.3% (1989 est.) ”

“ An inflation of our paper money, producing an inflation of prices, would inevitably injure the interests of the laborer for wages more than those of any other class of society; for, in the very nature of things, and as universal experience shows, it would increase the cost of living far more than the rate of wages. ”

“ Together, we've already begun to build the foundation for confidence in our economic system. During the last 2 years, in bringing our economy out of the deepest recession since the 1930's, we've created 7,100,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate has gone down 25 percent. And now we must redouble our fight against the persistent inflation that has wracked our country for more than a decade. That's our important domestic issue, and we must do it together.
We know that inflation is a burden for all Americans, but it's a disaster for the poor, the sick, and the old. ”

“ Last Monday the Commerce Department estimated that during these first 3 months of 1983, our economy will grow at an annual rate of 4 percent. And we believe the recovery will pick up strength as the year goes on. The double-digit inflation of 1980, which drove up costs and robbed you of your earnings, has been knocked all the way down to four-tenths of 1 percent in the last 6 months—the lowest 6-month rate in 22 years. ”

“ But again, Government alone cannot bring down the rate of inflation. When a level of high inflation is expected to continue, then companies raise prices to protect their profit margins against prospective increases in wages and other costs, while workers demand higher wages as protection against expected price increases. ”

“ The news on inflation continues to be even better than our hopes. Consumer prices actually fell during the first half of this year, giving us the lowest rate of inflation in more than 30 years. All this adds up to an economic expansion which is stronger than we originally thought and is now one of the longest peacetime expansions in half a century. ”

“ Now, here in London at this year's economic summit, it's clear we've made impressive gains. In 1981 our economies had an average growth rate of only 1.8 percent and 8 1/2-percent inflation. Today our average growth rate has risen to 4 percent, while inflation has been cut in half. Stronger growth means more jobs with the U.S.. economy leading the way. ”

“ Of course, this means a heavy expansion of bank credit. Economists are generally agreed that the flooding of the country with paper money brings about an enormous rise in prices. They differ chiefly in regard to the degree of inflation. The most accepted statement of inflation is that prices vary directly as the volume of the actual currency employed and its rate of turn over or velocity, and inversely with the volume of trade. The effect of bank credits is exactly that of an excessive issue of notes ”

“ But reduced spending the first and smallest phase of a 3-year tax rate reduction designed to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Already interest rates are down to 15 3/4 percent, but they must still go lower. Inflation is down from 12.4 percent to 8.9, and for the month of December it was running at an annualized rate of 5.2 percent. If we had not acted as we did, things would be far worse for all Americans than they are today. Inflation, taxes, and interest rates would all be higher. ”

“ And as soon as the government got a surplus, the wallets opened by both parties and spending surged. And it surged to the point where, unless spending is brought into check, the surplus will be reduced by $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years, as a result of government spending at the existing rate. Government spending has been far in excess of inflation. It has increased by six percent over the last three years, while inflation has averaged 2.5 percent for the last three years. ”

“ The 12 January 1994 devaluation of Franc Zone currencies by 50% resulted in inflation of 61% in 1994. Recent efforts to implement economic reforms have begun to show progress; the IMF has recommended approval of an Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility agreement in 1996.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $7.7 billion (1995 est.)
GDP real growth rate: 3.3% (1995 est.)
GDP per capita: $3,100 (1995 est.)
GDP composition by sector: agriculture: 11.4% industry: 35.2% services: 53.4% (1993)
Inflation rate (consumer prices) : 61% (1994 est.) ”

“ My budget blueprint will restrain spending, yet meet growing needs with a reasonable 4 percent growth rate, which is a little more than inflation. After paying the bills, my plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire. That would be a good worry to have.
Finally, along with funding our priorities and paying down debt, my plan returns about one out of every four dollars of the surplus to the American taxpayers, who created the surplus in the first place. ”

“ Our gross national product this year will grow between 6 to 7 percent between a low of ?45.792 billion and a high of ?46.244 billion. Per capital income has correspondingly increased. Money supply has grown to 4.1 percent, while inflation was held to an average 5.3 percent after the inflation rate reached 40 percent in 1974 and 1975. ”

“ Of course, this premium was not an increase in the value of gold, but a decrease in the value of paper currency. As the current money became cheap, the prices of commodities naturally rose. It has been ascertained that the average increase in the prices of real estate, rents, and goods was about ninety per cent, while the increase in the price of labor was only about sixty per cent. Thus it is evident that the men of means profited most, or suffered least, by the inflation, while the laborer suffered most. Another source of income was the issue of government bonds at a high rate of interest. ”

“ Government must never again use inflation to profit at the people's expense.
Today a working family earning $25,000 has $1,100 more in purchasing power than if tax and inflation rates were still at the 1980 levels. Real after-tax income increased 5 percent last year. And economic deregulation of key industries like transportation has offered more chances--or choices, I should say, to consumers and new changes--or chances for entrepreneurs and protecting safety. Tonight, we can report and be proud of one of the best recoveries in decades. ”

“ Real GDP increased more than 10% annually between 1986 and 1991. This growth ultimately led to an overheated situation characterized by a tight labor market, strong inflationary pressures, and a rapidly rising current account deficit. As a result, in 1992, economic policy focused on slowing the growth rate of inflation and reducing the deficit. ”

“ So long, therefore, as the currency is increased by the issue of national-bank notes, and not of greenbacks, there can be no depreciation, and consequently, no inflation—for inflation, as the term is used nowadays, signifies an increase in the volume of the currency that causes depreciation, or, as its friends put it, “makes money cheaper.” ”

“ Well, this time inflation is staying down, and we mean to keep it down. In the last 12 months, the Producer Price Index for finished goods—one indicator of future inflation—has risen less than 3 percent. If inflation stays down, interest rates will come down, too, and our economy will keep expanding. ”

“ In short, the process by which inflation raises prices is misunderstood because, at any stage, it is almost invisible. The only big reason the grocer can give for raising his prices is that the wholesaler has raised his. The only big reason any expert on a particular price can give is that other prices have risen. But when one price thus boosts another it simply transmits the boosting power of the underlying inflation. ”

“ Just yesterday we learned that the Producer Price Index rose only four-tenths of 1 percent in February, a smaller rise than in January, and a solid sign that inflation remains in check. We're determined to keep the nightmare of runaway inflation from ever coming back. ”

“ The maintenance of high levels of prices and wages in the United States is popularly ascribed to inflation. We have fallen into the habit of talking about inflation and deflation, owing to their being convenient expressions meaning the raising or lowering of price levels, but in fact the majority of economists bold that there is no such thing as monetary inflation in the United States at the present time. ”

“ Over the next few months, as the base effects’ months drift further into the past, this distortionary characteristic of the price data should fade.
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTIONS & MISALIGNMENTS A second potential source of inflation stems from increases in the cost of production. If the cost of the materials needed to produce a good or service rises (think of the lumber needed to build a house or the electricity needed to power a factory) , a business may pass on these costs to consumers in the form of higher prices; economists call this cost push inflation. ”

“ We've reduced inflationary pressures by reducing government spending growth, by promoting greater production through lower tax rates, and by spurring greater competition through the deregulation of key industries. Nor do we see signs that runaway price increases will reappear. This is the first time since the 1960's that we'll be able to enjoy strong and steady growth without high inflation. ”

“ Is the cost of living gradually declining, there- by increasing the purchasing power of wages?
Inflation is a post-war plague depressing the economy of nations and the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the world. Inflation remains unchecked and is in fact growing worse every day in many foreign countries. In our country we are fortunate that we have succeeded not only in arresting inflation but in starting the deflationary trend. ”

“ In our economy, it is a myth that we must choose endlessly between inflation and recession. Together, we build the foundation for a strong economy, with lower inflation, without contriving either a recession with its high unemployment or unworkable, mandatory government controls. ”

“ Prices have displayed a welcome stability in recent months and, if we are wise and resolute, we will not tolerate inflation in the years to come. But history makes clear the risks inherent in any failure to deal firmly with the .basic causes of inflation. ”

“ Implied in the last would be the emancipation of our price level from its entangling alliance with foreign price levels. The price level of each country now depends on that of those other countries which have the same monetary standard. The "High Cost of Living," one of the manifestations of inflation, communicates itself from one country to another having the same standard and no one country can avoid the common contagion so long as it has the common unstable unit. ”

“ But recession is only one enemy of a free economy--inflation is another. Last year, 1961, despite rising production and demand, consumer prices held almost steady--and wholesale prices declined. This is the best record of overall price stability of any comparable period of recovery since the end of World War II.
Inflation too often follows in the shadow of growth--while price stability is made easy by stagnation or controls. But we mean to maintain both stability and growth in a climate of freedom. ”

“ In the late eighties and early nineties, high inflation hindered economic activity and investment. The Real Plan, instituted in the spring of 1994, sought to break inflationary expectations by pegging the real to the US dollar. ”

“ The price of butter at the corner grocery is lifted on this tide without our being able to observe the connection of the rise with inflation, just as a fisherman's boat is lifted by the tides of the sea without his being able to connect the rise with the action of the moon.
To answer categorically, therefore, the question, How does inflation raise the price of butter at the corner grocer's, we may say: (1) partly because his customers have more money to spend, and (2) chiefly because the prices he pays to the wholesaler have been raised ”

“ As Dr. A. C. Miller of the Federal Reserve Board has said, "Inflation is no less inflation when gilded with gold."
10. Extent of War Inflation
On the whole, the money in circulation in the United States rose from three and one third billions in 1913 to five and a half billions in 1918, and bank deposits from thirteen to twenty-five billions, both approximately corresponding to the rise in prices. ”

“ It is well to note, as an inexorable corollary of Law I, that prices can rise only if demand exceeds supply, and fall only if supply exceeds demand; and hence that it is only through the agency of changes in the demand for and supply of commodities and services that an inflation or deflation of the currency can influence the price level. Further, since a condition of things in which supply generally exceeds demand spells what we know and fear as a trade depression, it may be well to note at once that falling prices and unemployment are inseparable bedfellows. ”

“ Now began to be seen more plainly some of the many ways in which an inflation policy robs the working class. As these knots of plotting schemers at the city centers were becoming bloated with sudden wealth, the producing classes of the country, though having in their possession more and more currency, grew lean. In the schemes and speculations put forth by stock-jobbers and stimulated by the printing of more currency, multitudes of small fortunes were absorbed and lost while a few swollen fortunes were rapidly aggregated in the larger cities. ”