Inflation is generally defined as the continued increase in the average prices of goods and services in a given region. Following the extremely high global inflation experienced in the 1980s and 1990s, global inflation has been relatively stable since the turn of the millennium, usually hovering between three and five percent per year. There was a sharp increase in 2008 due to the global financial crisis now known as the Great Recession, but inflation was fairly stable throughout the 2010s, before the current inflation crisis began in 2021. Recent years Despite the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the global inflation rate fell to 3.26 percent in the pandemic's first year, before rising to 4.66 percent in 2021. This increase came as the impact of supply chain delays began to take more of an effect on consumer prices, before the Russia-Ukraine war exacerbated this further. A series of compounding issues such as rising energy and food prices, fiscal instability in the wake of the pandemic, and consumer insecurity have created a new global recession, and global inflation in 2024 is estimated to have reached 5.76 percent. This is the highest annual increase in inflation since 1996. Venezuela Venezuela is the country with the highest individual inflation rate in the world, forecast at around 200 percent in 2022. While this is figure is over 100 times larger than the global average in most years, it actually marks a decrease in Venezuela's inflation rate, which had peaked at over 65,000 percent in 2018. Between 2016 and 2021, Venezuela experienced hyperinflation due to the government's excessive spending and printing of money in an attempt to curve its already-high inflation rate, and the wave of migrants that left the country resulted in one of the largest refugee crises in recent years. In addition to its economic problems, political instability and foreign sanctions pose further long-term problems for Venezuela. While hyperinflation may be coming to an end, it remains to be seen how much of an impact this will have on the economy, how living standards will change, and how many refugees may return in the coming years.

In case prices for goods and services go up significantly in 2023, over ** percent of consumers around the world said they would shop less in general and cut down on spending as a response. A fifth of survey respondents said they would look for and purchase cheaper and better value products. Less than **** percent of those surveyed worldwide believed inflation would be unlikely to impact their habits. What does inflation look like? The world entered a new inflation crisis in 2021, driven by a confluence of factors including the COVID-19 pandemic which restricted global supply chains, and the Russian-Ukraine war which exacerbated food and energy shortages. In 2022, global inflation hit **** percent, the highest annual increase in decades. The rate of inflation is estimated to remain high in the near future, at around *** percent in 2023 and *** percent in 2024. Inflation dominated the list of most important problems facing the world according to a survey conducted in October 2023 – leading ahead of poverty and social inequality, crime and violence, and unemployment. In a global consumer trends survey, the majority of respondents said that inflation impacted them completely or a lot – for instance, ***** in ** respondents in the United States admitted they had been seriously impacted. Inflation’s impact on the holidays The end-of-year holiday season is typically regarded as a period of increased retail spending, driven by a series of major shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as the public holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, inflation has put a damper on the holiday cheer, with consumers expressing their intentions to cut back spending amid the cost-of-living crisis. In 2022, a significant share of consumers in Europe said they planned to cut at least some related expenses. In fact, ** percent of respondents in the United Kingdom planned to cut all expenses related to Black Friday and Christmas.

In the third quarter of 2024, half of Norwegian companies had problems with increasing purchase prices as a result of rising inflation seen around the world. Moreover, more than 40 percent faced problems due to an unstable economic framework. On the other hand, only 10 percent had issues with lack of credits or financing. As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the Russian War in Ukraine that started in February 2022, inflation has been surging worldwide. For more information about inflation in the Nordic countries, please visit our dedicated topic page.

Over two-thirds of American households with children entering K-12 in the fall of 2024 were expecting rising prices to impact them more this year compared to last year. In contrast, just *** percent of respondents surveyed said they expected inflation to impact their back-to-school shopping less this time around.

In the United States, almost *** in **** online shoppers profited from Amazon Prime Day deals to stock up on items that got more expensive because of inflation in 2022. According to a poll, over ********* of the surveyed U.S. consumers even waited for Amazon Prime in order to purchase a product at a lower price. Overall, the inflation rate had no effect on a limited share of consumers – less than ** percent.

The UK inflation rate was 3.6 percent in June 2025, up from 3.4 percent in the previous month, and the fastest rate of inflation since January 2024. Between September 2022 and March 2023, the UK experienced seven months of double-digit inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022. Due to this long period of high inflation, UK consumer prices have increased by over 20 percent in the last three years. As of the most recent month, prices were rising fastest in the communications sector, at 6.1 percent, but were falling in both the furniture and transport sectors, at -0.3 percent and -0.6 percent, respectively.
The Cost of Living Crisis High inflation is one of the main factors behind the ongoing Cost of Living Crisis in the UK, which, despite subsiding somewhat in 2024, is still impacting households going into 2025. In December 2024, for example, 56 percent of UK households reported their cost of living was increasing compared with the previous month, up from 45 percent in July, but far lower than at the height of the crisis in 2022. After global energy prices spiraled that year, the UK's energy price cap increased substantially. The cap, which limits what suppliers can charge consumers, reached 3,549 British pounds per year in October 2022, compared with 1,277 pounds a year earlier. Along with soaring food costs, high-energy bills have hit UK households hard, especially lower income ones that spend more of their earnings on housing costs. As a result of these factors, UK households experienced their biggest fall in living standards in decades in 2022/23. Global inflation crisis causes rapid surge in prices The UK's high inflation, and cost of living crisis in 2022 had its origins in the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the initial waves of the virus, global supply chains struggled to meet the renewed demand for goods and services. Food and energy prices, which were already high, increased further in 2022. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 brought an end to the era of cheap gas flowing to European markets from Russia. The war also disrupted global food markets, as both Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of cereal crops. As a result of these factors, inflation surged across Europe and in other parts of the world, but typically declined in 2023, and approached more usual levels by 2024.

According to recent projections, the impact of reciprocal tariffs worldwide will lead to a short-term acceleration of prices by 0.71 percent. The U.S. is expected to experience the highest price index increase, estimated at 7.26 percent.

Inflation in 2022 changed payment behavior for online shopping in the UK, with **** out of 10 respondents now paying with a credit card. This according to a survey held in ** different countries across North America, Europe, and Latin America, and purely asked on whether cost of living had changed payment behavior in those countries. Credit cards, BNPL, and crypto were all used more often, but neither saw the largest growth: ** percent of respondents who changed their payment habits because of the rising cost of living in 2022 are paying online with debit cards more often than they did in the previous year.

In a January 2025 survey on domestic travel in the United Kingdom, 23 percent of respondents planned to book cheaper accommodation services in the next six months due to the cost of living crisis. Looking for more free activities and spending less on eating out were other popular strategies planned by domestic travelers to save money.

In a survey conducted in the United States in May 2022, the vast majority of respondents (93 percent) said that inflation affected their decision to buy and sell pre-owned goods. The main reason driving recommerce demand was the concern to save money and hunt for bargains.

In 2024, Japan had an average inflation rate estimated at 2.74 percent, marking the highest rate of inflation in Japan in almost a decade. However, this figure was still very low compared to most other major economies, such as Japan's fellow G7 members, four of which had inflation rates around six or seven percent in 2023 due to the global inflation crisis. Why is Japan's inflation rate lower? There are a number of contributing factors to Japan's relatively low inflation rate, even during economic crises. Japan eased its Covid restrictions more slowly than most other major economies, this prevented post-pandemic consumer spending that may have driven inflation through supply chain issues caused by higher demand. As the majority of Japan's food and energy comes from overseas, and has done so for decades, the government has mechanisms in place to prevent energy and wheat prices from rising too quickly. Because of this, Japan was able to shield its private sector from many of the negative knock on effects from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which had a significant impact on both sectors globally. Persistent deflation and national debt An additional factor that has eased the impact of inflation on Japan's economy is the fact that it experienced deflation before the pandemic. Deflation has been a persistent problem in Japan since the asset price bubble burst in 1992, and has been symptomatic of Japan's staggering national debt thereafter. For almost 30 years, a combination of quantitative easing, low interest rates (below 0.5 percent since 1995, and at -0.1% since 2016), and a lack of spending due to low wages and an aging population have combined to give Japan the highest national debt in the world in absolute terms, and second-highest debt in relation to its GDP, after Venezuela. Despite this soaring debt, Japan remains the fourth-largest economy in the world, behind the U.S., China, and Germany.

In 2021, it was estimated that the food and grocery market in the United Kingdom (UK) grew by around four percent due to inflation. This figure was forecast to gradually decrease to *** percent by 2025.

The inflation rate in the United States declined significantly between June 2022 and June 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.

Inflation Rate in the United States remained unchanged at 2.70 percent in July. This dataset provides - United States Inflation Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

During this year's Thanksgiving season, many U.S. consumers were looking to take cost-cutting measures when shopping for Thanksgiving. According to the findings of a survey, a quarter of consumers was looking to use more coupons, while another ** percent said they were going to cut back on the number of guests.

In 2025, almost ** percent of consumers had seen price increases in supermarkets. Restaurants and gas stations were also among the most impacted store types, while ecommerce sites and furniture stores were the least impacted.

According to a Rakuten Insight survey conducted in March 2023, around ** percent of respondents in Vietnam indicated that they were more cautious when spending in response to inflation. Meanwhile, only *** percent disclosed their incapability to cope with the effects of inflation.

In December 2024, the consumer price index (CPI) of recreational and cultural services rose by *** percent over the previous year. This was the sharpest price increase recorded among travel and tourism services in the UK that month. Meanwhile, the annual CPI average of holiday centers, camping sites, youth hostels, and similar accommodation services, was the highest among the listed services that year.

Inflation in 2022 changed payment behavior for online shopping in Brazil, with five out of 10 respondents now paying with a credit card. This according to a survey held in ** different countries across North America, Europe, and Latin America, and purely asked on whether cost of living had changed payment behavior in those countries. BNPL, and crypto were all used more often, but neither saw the largest growth: ** percent of respondents who changed their payment habits because of the rising cost of living in 2022 are paying online with credit cards more often than they did in the previous year. The source adds this is different from other countries it surveyed, stating that debit cards were often the payment method with the highest increase.

In 2024, around ** percent of U.S. Gen Z consumers taking part in a survey stated that in the past year, they started buying cheaper beauty brands due to the impact of inflation. Nearly ** percent indicated that they had started searching more for promotions and/or coupon codes.