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 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.

Inflation Rate in China increased to 0.10 percent in June from -0.10 percent in May of 2025. This dataset provides - China Inflation Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

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.

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.

United States CSI: Expected Inflation: Next Yr: Up by 1-2% data was reported at 29.000 % in May 2018. This stayed constant from the previous number of 29.000 % for Apr 2018. United States CSI: Expected Inflation: Next Yr: Up by 1-2% data is updated monthly, averaging 18.000 % from Jan 1978 (Median) to May 2018, with 485 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 34.000 % in Oct 2016 and a record low of 1.000 % in May 1980. United States CSI: Expected Inflation: Next Yr: Up by 1-2% data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by University of Michigan. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.H030: Consumer Sentiment Index: Unemployment, Interest Rates, Prices and Government Expectations. The questions were: 'During the next 12 months, do you think that prices in general will go up, or go down, or stay where they are now?' and 'By what percent do you expect prices to go up, on the average, during the next 12 months?'

United States SBOI: sa: Most Pressing Problem: Survey High: Inflation data was reported at 41.000 % in Mar 2025. This stayed constant from the previous number of 41.000 % for Feb 2025. United States SBOI: sa: Most Pressing Problem: Survey High: Inflation data is updated monthly, averaging 41.000 % from Jan 2014 (Median) to Mar 2025, with 131 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 41.000 % in Mar 2025 and a record low of 41.000 % in Mar 2025. United States SBOI: sa: Most Pressing Problem: Survey High: Inflation data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Federation of Independent Business. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.S042: NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

This data package includes the underlying data files to replicate the data, tables, and charts presented in How the United States solved South Korea’s problems with electric vehicle subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act, PIIE Working Paper 23-6.

If you use the data, please cite as: Bown, Chad P. 2023. How the United States solved South Korea’s problems with electric vehicle subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act. PIIE Working Paper 23-6. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics.

As of April 2025, the inflation rate in the European Union was 2.4 percent, with prices rising fastest in Romania, which had an inflation rate of 4.9 percent. By contrast, both France and Cyprus saw low inflation rates during the same period, with France having the lowest inflation rate in the EU during this month. The rate of inflation in the EU in the October 2022 was higher than at any other time, with the peak prior to 2021 recorded in July 2008 when prices were growing by 4.4 percent year-on-year. Before the recent rises in inflation, price rises in the EU had been kept at relatively low levels, with the inflation rate remaining below three percent between January 2012 and August 2021. Rapid recovery and energy costs driving inflation The reopening of the European economy in 2021 following the sudden shock of COVID-19 in 2020 is behind many of the factors that have caused prices to rise so quickly in 2022. Global supply chains have not yet recovered from production issues, travel restrictions, and workforce problems brought about by the pandemic. Rising energy costs have only served to exacerbate supply problems, particularly with regard to the transport sector, which had the highest inflation rate of any sector in the EU in December 2021. High inflation rates mirrored in the U.S. The high inflation rates seen in Europe have been reflected in other parts of the world. In the United States, for example, the consumer price index reached a 40-year-high of seven percent in December 2021, influenced by many of the same factors driving European inflation. Nevertheless, it is hoped that once these supply chain issues ease, inflation levels will start to fall throughout the course of 2022.

The Question “Why unemployment?” is one of the most central topics of economic theory since the great depression. Unemployment remains one of the most important problems of economic policies in industrial countries. Unemployment has different causes and therefore also different countermeasures are required. “Together with the destruction of environment unemployment and inflation are in the focus of economic and political discussions on macroeconomic problems and are considered as the greatest challenges of economic policy. Depending on the level of unemployment there is a higher focus on inflation or on unemployment, if both are on an alarming level at the same time they are in the shot simultaneously. In anyway both issues need to be analyzed together because they are not independent from each other. Experiences from the recent years have shown that combating inflation leads to an increase in unemployment, at least temporarily but probably also permanently. The other way around; combating unemployment may under certain circumstances also lead to an increase in inflation… Unemployment and inflation are macroeconomic problems. The level of both undesirable developments is determined by the relations in the entire economy. Therefor it is necessary to use macroeconomic theory which deals the general economic context for the analysis. Both problems are enhanced by structural factors which also need to be analyzed. In contrast to microeconomic theory which focuses on different individual decision makers, in macroeconomic theory decision makers and decisions are summarized in macroeconomic aggregates. The common procedure is to summarize decision makers into aggregates like “private households”, “enterprises” and “the state” and the decision makers concerning the use of income into “private consumption”, “investments” and “public expenditure” (Kromphardt, Jürgen, 1998: Arbeitslosigkeit und Inflation (unemployment and inflation). 2., newly revised A. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, p. 17-18). Macroeconomic approaches on the explanation of unemployment and inflation are highly controversial in economic theory. Therefore the author starts with the attempt to present different explanations for unemployment and inflation from different macroeconomic positions. There are different unemployment: classical unemployment (reason: real wages to high), Keynesian unemployment (reason: demand for goods to low), unemployment due to a lack of working places (reason: capital stock to low). These positions give conflicting explanations and recommendations because they are based on different perceptions of the starting position. Therefor the author confronts central positions with empirical data on the macro level with the following restriction: “It is impossible to prove theories as correct (to verify). This is a reason for the fact that macroeconomic controversies do not come to a conclusion but are continued in a modified way. Furthermore economic statements in this field always affect social and political interests as all economic policies favor or put as a disadvantage interests of distinct social groups in a different way.“ (Kromphardt, a.a.O., S. 20).

Data tables in HISTAT (1) Development of employment: Presented by the development of annual average unemployment rates and the balance of labor force of the institute for labor market and occupation research (IAB, Nuremberg) after the domestic concept(employment with Germany as the place of work) For characterizing the overall economic developments, those values are used which play an important role in the reports of the German central bank: (2) Inflation: Rate of differences in the price index for costs of living compared to the previous year (3) Currency reserves of German federal banks and the German central bank: measure for foreign economic situation and the payment balance of the central bank (4) Development of economic growth: Presented by the nominal and real growth rate of the GDP (5) Inflation rate of the GDP, money supply, growth rate of the price index of the GDP (6) Labor productivity (= GDP per employee, domestic concept) (7) Real wage per employee (8) Exchange rate: DM/$ (monthly averages) (9) Growth of DGP, productivity, economically active population, real incomes, unemployment rate and adjusted wages (10) Time series connected with labor demand (11) GDP, labor volume, employees, working hours and labor productivity (12) Employee compensation, wages and ...

Empirical analyses of Cagan’s money demand schedule for hyper-inflation have largely ignored the explosive nature of hyper-inflationary data. It is argued that this contributes to an (i) inability to model the data to the end of the hyper-inflation, and to (ii) discrepancies between “estimated” and “actual” inflation tax. Using data from the extreme Yugoslavian hyper-inflation it is shown that a linear analysis of levels of prices and money fails in addressing these issues even when the explosiveness is taken into account. The explanation is that log real money has random walk behaviour while the growth of log prices is explosive. A simple solution to these issues is found by replacing the conventional measure of inflation by the cost of holding money.

Inflation Rate in Iran increased to 38.90 percent in April from 37.10 percent in March of 2025. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - Iran Inflation Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland provides daily “nowcasts” of inflation for two popular price indexes, the price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI). These nowcasts give a sense of where inflation is today. Released each business day.

In Grear Britain, inflation was seen by 32 percent of people in 2024, and 40 percent of people in 2022 as being one of the most important issues facing the country, significantly higher than than in 2021 when just one percent of people thought it was an important issue. The share of people believing inflation to be an important issue correlates with the UK's RPI inflation rate, which shows that between the early 1990s and mid-2021, the inflation rate was rarely above five percent.

This omnibus survey focuses on inflation and other problems in the economyAdditional questions probed what American business could do to solve economic problems

The Consumer Price Index gauges the price changes in a basket of goods and services in a defined time period. In Argentina, the CPI in April 2024 was 289 percent higher than the one registered the same month of the previous year, with this figure being the largest monthly inflation rate since, at least, the beginning of 2018. The Argentinian inflation rate has been experiencing a steep increase from December 2020 onwards, when the decreasing trend witnessed since December 2019 came to an end. Long history of inflation in Latin America High inflation rates are nothing new in Latin America. In 2023, the region's inflation rate was 14.41 percent, while the global average was much lower at 6.78 percent. Nonetheless, the main drivers of this are Venezuela and Argentina, both being in the upper table of countries with the highest inflation rates in the world. During the last few years, Venezuela entered a period with five-digits inflation rates, having to issue a new currency and implementing new policies to control price increases.

A history of hyperinflation During the last couple of years, inflation has been a constant among the main problems the Argentine society faces. The country returned to a three-digit inflation rate with former president Alberto Fernández, and the constant price increases took a toll on households across the board. Nevertheless, the problem is far from a recent one or the worst it's ever been, in 1989 and 1990, the inflation rate was over 2,000 percent, reaching for the status of hyperinflation. Commonly, hyperinflation is defined as price increases with over 50 percent per month.

Inflation Rate in Canada remained unchanged at 1.70 percent in May. This dataset provides - Canada Inflation Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The German inflation rate has returned to normal levels of around 2.2 percent, based on preliminary figures for 2024. Compared to skyrocketing rates in 2022 and 2023, this can be seen as an improvement of the national economic situation. Various factors influenced the recent development of inflation in Germany. These are the same that pushed inflation levels around the rest of the world, particularly since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. The most recent recorded annual inflation rate in Germany is within the normal range defined by central banks internationally, which is generally between 1.5 and four percent a year. The 2.2 percent for 2024 are not only noticeably lower than the preceding two years, but also less than in 2021, one of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown years in Germany. 2022 and 2023 followed on the heels of the challenges posed by the pandemic which were already straining the national economy: supply chain interruptions and delays, transport problems, labor shortages across sectors and industries. These issues continue to partially impact the economy today.

This data package includes the underlying data files to replicate the data and charts presented in The Inflation Surge in Europe by Patrick Honohan, PIIE Policy Brief 24-2.

If you use the data, please cite as: Honohan, Patrick. 2024. The Inflation Surge in Europe. PIIE Policy Brief 24-2. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Canada's inflation rate experienced significant fluctuations from 2018 to 2025. Inflation peaked at *** percent in June 2022 before steadily declining to *** percent by December 2024. In early 2025, inflation began to increase again, rising to *** percent in February, and dropping to *** percent in March. In response to rising inflation between 2020 and 2022, the Bank of Canada implemented aggressive interest rate hikes. The bank rate reached a maximum of **** percent in July 2023 and remained stable until June 2024. As inflationary pressures eased in the second half of 2024, the central bank reduced interest rates to *** percent in December 2024. In 2025, the bank rate witnessed two cuts, standing at ***** percent in May 2025. This pattern reflected broader global economic trends, with most advanced and emerging economies experiencing similar inflationary challenges and monetary policy adjustments. Global context of inflation and interest rates The Canadian experience aligns with the broader international trend of central banks raising policy rates to combat inflation. Between 2021 and 2023, nearly all advanced and emerging economies increased their central bank rates. However, a shift occurred in the latter half of 2024, with many countries, including Canada, beginning to lower rates. This change suggests a new phase in the global economic cycle and monetary policy approach. Notably, among surveyed countries, Russia maintained the highest interest rate in early 2025, while Japan had the lowest rate. Comparison with the United States The United States experienced a similar trajectory in inflation and interest rates. U.S. inflation peaked at *** percent in June 2022, slightly higher than Canada's peak. The Federal Reserve responded with a series of rate hikes, reaching **** percent in August 2023. This rate remained unchanged until September 2024, when the first cut since September 2021 was implemented. In contrast, Canada's bank rate peaked at **** percent and began decreasing earlier, with cuts in June and July 2024. These differences highlight the nuanced approaches of central banks in managing their respective economies amid global inflationary pressures.