In April 2025, global inflation rates and central bank interest rates showed significant variation across major economies. Most economies initiated interest rate cuts from mid-2024 due to declining inflationary pressures. The U.S., UK, and EU central banks followed a consistent pattern of regular rate reductions throughout late 2024. In early 2025, Russia maintained the highest interest rate at 21 percent, while Japan retained the lowest at 0.5 percent. Varied inflation rates across major economies The inflation landscape varies considerably among major economies. China had the lowest inflation rate at -0.1 percent in April 2025. In contrast, Russia maintained a high inflation rate of 10.2 percent. These figures align with broader trends observed in early 2025, where China had the lowest inflation rate among major developed and emerging economies, while Russia's rate remained the highest. Central bank responses and economic indicators Central banks globally implemented aggressive rate hikes throughout 2022-23 to combat inflation. The European Central Bank exemplified this trend, raising rates from 0 percent in January 2022 to 4.5 percent by September 2023. A coordinated shift among major central banks began in mid-2024, with the ECB, Bank of England, and Federal Reserve initiating rate cuts, with forecasts suggesting further cuts through 2025 and 2026.

Professionals from Italian e-commerce players faced inflation's impact on their business. A survey from early 2023 showed that about four in ten companies had decreased margins to keep similar prices, whereas 31 percent of surveyed professionals stated their companies maintained similar prices but reduced discounts.

This spreadsheet contains data downloaded from the European Central Bank website: https://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/intelligentsearch/

The columns of data in this spreadsheet were chosen by John Simister, for a paper submitted to 'SN Busines & Economics' journal in April 2023, written by John Simister and Dimitrios Syrrakos.

The data in this spreadsheet are made available to the public by the European Central Bank: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/services/using-our-site/disclaimer/html/index.en.html

Inflation Rate in the United States increased to 2.40 percent in May from 2.30 percent in April of 2025. This dataset provides - United States Inflation Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The inflation rate in the United States declined significantly between June 2022 and May 2025, despite rising inflationary pressures towards the end of 2024. The peak inflation rate was recorded in June 2022, at *** percent. In August 2023, the Federal Reserve's interest rate hit its highest level during the observed period, at **** percent, and remained unchanged until September 2024, when the Federal Reserve implemented its first rate cut since September 2021. By January 2025, the rate dropped to **** percent, signalling a shift in monetary policy. What is the Federal Reserve interest rate? The Federal Reserve interest rate, or the federal funds rate, is the rate at which banks and credit unions lend to and borrow from each other. It is one of the Federal Reserve's key tools for maintaining strong employment rates, stable prices, and reasonable interest rates. The rate is determined by the Federal Reserve and adjusted eight times a year, though it can be changed through emergency meetings during times of crisis. The Fed doesn't directly control the interest rate but sets a target rate. It then uses open market operations to influence rates toward this target. Ways of measuring inflation Inflation is typically measured using several methods, with the most common being the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI tracks the price of a fixed basket of goods and services over time, providing a measure of the price changes consumers face. At the end of 2023, the CPI in the United States was ****** percent, up from ****** a year earlier. A more business-focused measure is the producer price index (PPI), which represents the costs of firms.

In 2018, the average inflation rate in Kenya amounted to about 4.69 percent compared to the previous year, a significant decrease from 7.99 percent the year prior. Forecasts see Kenya’s inflation levelling off at around five percent in the near future.

Kenya sees economic growth

Kenya’s economic growth has been quite steady these past few years and is still on the rise – except for a little dip in 2017, which is no real reason for concern. Gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to almost double by 2024, and unemployment, although still above 10 percent, is on the decline. Although Kenya may not be among the leading countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) yet, but these economic trends plus demographic key factors like a declining infant mortality rate and a life expectancy at birth that has increased by a decade over the same time span show that Kenya is definitely on the way.

A brief look at Kenya’s economy

Kenya’s market-based economy is considered East Africa’s finance and transportation hub. Most of Kenya’s GDP is generated by services, especially travel and tourism, but agriculture is also quite successful, as it contributes about a third to GDP. The country exports less than it imports, and its leading exports are mostly commodities like tea and coffee. Imports include petroleum, machinery, and metals. Subsequently, Kenya’s trade balance is in the red, however, national debt is decreasing.

Graph and download economic data for Producer Price Index by Industry: Relay and Industrial Control Manufacturing: Parts for Industrial Controls and Motor-Control Accessories (PCU3353143353147) from Jun 1990 to May 2025 about parts, manufacturing, PPI, industry, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

Inflation in the table below is defined as the percent change in the CPI from the same month last year. The first column of numbers shows the latest value available from the national authorities and the next two columns show the levels of annual inflation three months and one year prior to the latest release. The data are updated daily. Over long stretches of time - typically years - inflation is a byproduct of the expansion of money supply. In the short run the inflation rate fluctuates with economic growth as recessions slow down the increase in prices and rapid output growth accelerates it. Shits in exchange rates, commodity prices, and natural phenomena like droughts also have an impact. Over time, however, these factors have only a transitory effect and the only variable that matters is money supply growth. The control of inflation is delegated to central banks that typically try to balance between relatively low inflation and low unemployment. For more, you can read our articles about optimal inflation and the causes of inflation in the short run and the long run.

Due to the recent hyperinflation crisis in Venezuela, the average inflation rate in Venezuela is estimated to be around 225 percent in 2026. However, this is well below the peak of 63,000 percent observed in 2018.What is hyperinflation?In short, hyperinflation is a very high inflation rate that accelerates quickly. It can be caused by a government printing huge amounts of new money to pay for its expenses. The subsequent rapid increase of prices causes the country’s currency to lose value and shortages in goods to occur. People then typically start hoarding goods, which become even more scarce and expensive, money becomes worthless, financial institutions go bankrupt, and eventually, the country’s economy collapses. The Venezuelan descent into hyperinflationIn Venezuela, the economic catastrophe began with government price controls and plummeting oil prices, which caused state-run oil companies to go bankrupt. The government then starting printing new money to cope, thus prices rose rapidly, unemployment increased, and GDP collapsed, all of which was exacerbated by international sanctions. Today, many Venezuelans are emigrating to find work and supplies elsewhere, and population growth is at a decade-low. Current president Nicolás Maduro does not seem inclined to steer away from his course of price controls and economic mismanagement, so the standard of living in the country is not expected to improve significantly anytime soon.

We study the impact of targeted price controls on supermarket products in Argentina between 2007 and 2015. Using web-scraping methods, we collected daily prices for controlled and non-controlled goods and examined the differential effects of the policy on inflation, product availability, entry and exit, and price dispersion. We first show that price controls have only a small and temporary effect on inflation that reverses itself as soon as the controls are lifted. Second, contrary to common beliefs, we find that controlled goods are consistently available for sale. Third, firms compensate for price controls by introducing new product varieties at higher prices, thereby increasing price dispersion within narrow categories. Overall, our results show that targeted price controls are just as ineffective as more traditional forms of price controls in reducing aggregate inflation.

ABSTRACT This paper aims to evaluate the performance of the monetary policy of inflation targeting regime in the Latin America countries from 2001 to 2014, with monthly data. For this purpose, a VEC model (vector error correction) is applied to running data to analyze the long-term function and the impulse response function. The results pointed out that the adoption of the target system has contributed to reduce the inflation rate and its volatility and the fluctuations in the rate of growth in activity level. The estimated parameters of the long-term speed of adjustment of the price index have indicated strong reaction by the monetary authorities to change inflation rate via short-term interest rate. These adjustments are also noted in the level of activity and the exchange rate for most countries, but with less level of speed. The impulse response function confirmed these results. Therefore, the monetary policy was effective to control inflation, especially in Peru, Colombia and Chile. In Brazil and Mexico, the effectiveness of monetary policy has only been observed more recently.

In January 2025, prices had increased by three percent compared to January 2024 according to the 12-month percentage change in the consumer price index — the monthly inflation rate for goods and services in the United States. The data represents U.S. city averages. In economics, the inflation rate is a measure of the change in price level over time. The rate of decrease in the purchasing power of money is approximately equal. A projection of the annual U.S. inflation rate can be accessed here and the actual annual inflation rate since 1990 can be accessed here. InflationOne of the most important economic indicators is the development of the Consumer Price Index in a country. The change in this price level of goods and services is defined as the rate of inflation. The inflationary situation in the United States had been relatively severe in 2022 due to global events relating to COVID-19, supply chain restrains, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. More information on U.S. inflation may be found on our dedicated topic page. The annual inflation rate in the United States has increased from 3.2 percent in 2011 to 8.3 percent in 2022. This means that the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has weakened in recent years. The purchasing power is the extent to which a person has available funds to make purchases. According to the data published by the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) was about 258.84 in 2020 and is forecasted to grow up to 325.6 by 2027, compared to the base period from 1982 to 1984. The monthly percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for urban consumers in the United States was 0.1 percent in March 2023 compared to the previous month. In 2022, countries all around the world are experienced high levels of inflation. Although Brazil already had an inflation rate of 8.3 percent in 2021, compared to the previous year, while the inflation rate in China stood at 0.85 percent.

Inflation Rate in Mexico increased to 4.42 percent in May from 3.93 percent in April of 2025. This dataset provides - Mexico Inflation Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The Volcker Shock was a period of historically high interest rates precipitated by Federal Reserve Chairperson Paul Volcker's decision to raise the central bank's key interest rate, the Fed funds effective rate, during the first three years of his term. Volcker was appointed chairperson of the Fed in August 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, as replacement for William Miller, who Carter had made his treasury secretary. Volcker was one of the most hawkish (supportive of tighter monetary policy to stem inflation) members of the Federal Reserve's committee, and quickly set about changing the course of monetary policy in the U.S. in order to quell inflation. The Volcker Shock is remembered for bringing an end to over a decade of high inflation in the United States, prompting a deep recession and high unemployment, and for spurring on debt defaults among developing countries in Latin America who had borrowed in U.S. dollars.

Monetary tightening and the recessions of the early '80s

Beginning in October 1979, Volcker's Fed tightened monetary policy by raising interest rates. This decision had the effect of depressing demand and slowing down the U.S. economy, as credit became more expensive for households and businesses. The Fed funds rate, the key overnight rate at which banks lend their excess reserves to each other, rose as high as 17.6 percent in early 1980. The rate was allowed to fall back below 10 percent following this first peak, however, due to worries that inflation was not falling fast enough, a second cycle of monetary tightening was embarked upon starting in August of 1980. The rate would reach its all-time peak in June of 1981, at 19.1 percent. The second recession sparked by these hikes was far deeper than the 1980 recession, with unemployment peaking at 10.8 percent in December 1980, the highest level since The Great Depression. This recession would drive inflation to a low point during Volcker's terms of 2.5 percent in August 1983.

The legacy of the Volcker Shock

By the end of Volcker's terms as Fed Chair, inflation was at a manageable rate of around four percent, while unemployment had fallen under six percent, as the economy grew and business confidence returned. While supporters of Volcker's actions point to these numbers as proof of the efficacy of his actions, critics have claimed that there were less harmful ways that inflation could have been brought under control. The recessions of the early 1980s are cited as accelerating deindustrialization in the U.S., as manufacturing jobs lost in 'rust belt' states such as Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania never returned during the years of recovery. The Volcker Shock was also a driving factor behind the Latin American debt crises of the 1980s, as governments in the region defaulted on debts which they had incurred in U.S. dollars. Debates about the validity of using interest rate hikes to get inflation under control have recently re-emerged due to the inflationary pressures facing the U.S. following the Coronavirus pandemic and the Federal Reserve's subsequent decision to embark on a course of monetary tightening.

Graph and download economic data for Producer Price Index by Industry: Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing: Physical Properties Testing and Inspection Equipment and Kinematic Testing and Measuring Equipment (PCU3345193345194) from Jun 1985 to May 2025 about equipment, manufacturing, PPI, industry, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

The enduring discourse regarding the effectiveness of interest rate policy in mitigating inflation within developing economies is characterized by the interplay of structural and supply-side determinants. Moreover, extant academic literature fails to resolve the direction of causality between inflation and interest rates. Nevertheless, the prevalent adoption of interest rate-based monetary policies in numerous developing economies raises a fundamental inquiry: What motivates central banks in these nations to consistently espouse this strategy? To address this inquiry, our study leverages wavelet transformation to dissect interest rate and inflation data across a spectrum of frequency scales. This innovative methodology paves the way for a meticulous exploration of the intricate causal interplay between these pivotal macroeconomic variables for twenty-two developing economies using monthly data from 1992 to 2022. Traditional literature on causality tends to focus on short- and long-run timescales, yet our study posits that numerous uncharted time and frequency scales exist between these extremes. These intermediate scales may wield substantial influence over the causal relationship and its direction. Our research thus extends the boundaries of existing causality literature and presents fresh insights into the complexities of monetary policy in developing economies. Traditional wisdom suggests that central banks should raise interest rates to combat inflation. However, our study uncovers a contrasting reality in developing economies. It demonstrates a positive causal link between the policy rate and inflation, where an increase in the central bank’s interest rates leads to an upsurge in price levels. Paradoxically, in response to escalating prices, the central bank continues to heighten the policy rate, thereby perpetuating this cyclical pattern. Given this observed positive causal relationship in developing economies, central banks must explore structural and supply-side factors to break this cycle and regain control over inflation.

It is widely acknowledged that the Fed can control the average inflation rate over a period of time reasonably well. Because of this and the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC's) long-standing commitment to price stability, the author argues that the FOMC has an implicit long-run inflation objective (LIO) lower and upper bounds to the long-run inflation rate. He shows that the statements made by the FOMC in 2003 clarified the lower bound of its LIO and that the average of long-run inflation expectations responded by rising about 80 basis points. Moreover, consistent with reducing the market's uncertainty about the FOMC's LIO, long-run inflation expectations became more stable. The FOMC has recently been more specific about the upper bound of its LIO as well. The FOMC could eliminate the remaining uncertainty by establishing an explicit, numerical inflation objective.

ABSTRACT This article shows that the theory that supports the inflation targeting regime does not have a relationship with reality. Moreover, this stresses that monetary policy should be used to full capacity because it not only controls inflation, but is also useful to achieve real goals, such as employment. The article shows that there is no evidence that the regime reduced inflation in the 1990’s. Developed countries which adopted the regime and developed countries which did not adopt inflation targeting regime have both reduced and kept inflation under control.

According to a survey conducted between July 9 and July 11, 2022, 45 percent of Americans thought that Joe Biden was highly responsible for the current trend in the inflation rate. This is compared to 26 percent of Americans who said President Biden did not have a lot of responsibility for the current inflation rate.

Inflation in the U.S. Global events in 2022 had a significant impact on the United States. Inflation rose from 1.4 percent in January 2021 to 9.1 percent in June 2022. Significantly higher prices of basic goods led to increased concern over the state of the economy, and the ability to cover increasing monthly costs with the same income. Low interest rates, COVID-19-related supply constraints, corporate profiteering, and strong consumer spending had already put pressure on prices before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Despite rising wages on paper, the rapid growth of consumer prices resulted in an overall decline in real hourly earnings in the first half of 2022.

How much control does Joe Biden have over inflation? The bulk of economic performance and the inflation rate is determined by factors outside the President’s direct control, but U.S. presidents are often held accountable for it. Some of those factors are market forces, private business, productivity growth, the state of the global economy, and policies of the Federal Reserve. Although high-spending decisions such as the 2021 COVID-19 relief bill may have contributed to rising inflation rates, the bill has been seen by economists as a necessary intervention for preventing a recession at the time, as well as being of significant importance to low-income workers impacted by the pandemic.

The most important tool for curbing inflation and controlling the U.S. economy is the Federal Reserve. The Reserve has the ability to set, raise, and lower interest rates and determine the wider monetary policy for the United States – something out of the president’s control. In June 2022, the Reserve announced it would raise interest rates 0.75 percent for the second time that year – hoisting the rate to a target range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent – in an attempt to slow consumer demand and balance demand with supply. However, it can often take time before the impacts of interventions by the Federal Reserve are seen in the public’s day-to-day lives. Most economists expect this wave of inflation to pass in a year to 18 months.

Experimental evolution studies can be used to explore genomic response to artificial and natural selection. In such studies, loci that display larger allele frequency change than expected by genetic drift alone are assumed to be directly or indirectly associated with traits under selection. However, such studies report surprisingly many loci under selection, suggesting that current tests for allele frequency change may be subject to p-value inflation and hence be anti-conservative. One factor known from genome wide association (GWA) studies to cause p-value inflation is population stratification, such as relatedness among individuals. Here we suggest that by treating presence of an individual in a population after selection as a binary response variable, existing GWA methods can be used to account for relatedness when estimating allele frequency change. We show that accounting for relatedness like this effectively reduces false positives in tests for allele frequency change in simulated data with varying levels of population structure. However, once relatedness has been accounted for, the power to detect causal loci under selection is low. Finally, we demonstrate the presence of p-value inflation in allele frequency change in empirical data spanning multiple generations from an artificial selection experiment on tarsus length in two wild populations of house sparrow, and correct for this using genomic control. Our results indicate that since allele frequencies in large parts of the genome may change when selection acts on a heritable trait, such selection is likely to have considerable and immediate consequences for the eco-evolutionary dynamics of the affected populations.