In September 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 September 2025, Russia maintained the highest interest rate at 17 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 -0.3 percent in September 2025. In contrast, Russia maintained a high inflation rate of 8 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.

This dataset provides values for INFLATION RATE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

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.

This dataset provides values for INFLATION RATE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

Argentina had the highest annual inflation rate of G20 member countries as of April 2024, reaching an annual average of *** percent. The Latin American country has struggled with high inflation over several years. Elsewhere, the inflation rate in Turkey reached almost ** percent, while it was lowest in China at *** percent.

Context

Understanding global economic dynamics, specifically the trends in inflation rates, is paramount for policymakers, economists, and researchers. This dataset, covering the years 1980 to 2024, offers a comprehensive perspective on inflation across various countries. The primary focus is on dissecting the data based on country-specific indicators, providing valuable insights into the multifaceted factors influencing economic environments on a global scale.

Content

The dataset comprises crucial columns including country name, indicator type, and annual average inflation rates from 1980 to 2024. This extensive collection of information facilitates detailed analysis and correlation studies, enabling researchers to uncover patterns and trends. By examining the nuanced relationships between country-specific indicators and inflation rates, valuable conclusions can be drawn about the complexities of global economic dynamics over the years. This dataset serves as a valuable resource for anyone seeking to delve into the intricacies of inflation trends and their implications across diverse nations.

Dataset Structure:

This dataset (global_inflation_data.csv) covering from 1980 to 2024 consists of the following columns:

Acknowledgment

The primary dataset was retrieved from the World Bank. I sincerely thank the team for providing the core data used in this dataset.

© Image credit: Freepik

The average for 2024 based on 155 countries was 6 percent. The highest value was in Turkey: 58.5 percent and the lowest value was in Afghanistan: -6.6 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2024. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

This dataset provides values for INFLATION RATE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

This dataset provides values for INFLATION RATE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

Historical dataset showing U.S. inflation rate by year from 1960 to 2024.

Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICPs) are designed for international comparisons of consumer price inflation. HICP is used for example by the European Central Bank for monitoring of inflation in the Economic and Monetary Union and for the assessment of inflation convergence as required under Article 121 of the Treaty of Amsterdam. For the U.S. and Japan national consumer price indices are used in the table.

The average for 2025 based on 12 countries was 27.46 percent. The highest value was in Venezuela: 254.35 percent and the lowest value was in Peru: 2.04 percent. The indicator is available from 1980 to 2030. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Historical dataset showing Japan inflation rate by year from 1960 to 2024.

Historical dataset showing Sweden inflation rate by year from 1960 to 2024.

Historical dataset showing Brazil inflation rate by year from 1981 to 2024.

Historical dataset showing Germany inflation rate by year from 1960 to 2024.

At ***** percent, Laos had by far the highest inflation rate among selected Southeast Asian economies as of February 2024. The country's inflation rate experienced a slowdown in the last year. In contrast, Thailand had a negative inflation rate of **** percent in February of the same year.

The statistic lists the 20 countries with the lowest inflation rate in 2024. In 2023, China ranked 6th with an inflation rate of about 0.21 percent compared to the previous year. Inflation rates and the financial crisis Due to relatively stagnant worker wages as well as a hesitation from banks to so easily distribute loans to the ordinary citizen, inflation has remained considerably low. Low inflation rates are most apparent in European countries, which stems from the on-going Eurozone debt crisis as well as from the global financial crisis of 2008. With continuous economical struggles and a currently sensitive economic situation throughout Europe, precautions were taken in order to maintain stability and to prevent consequential breakdowns, such as those in Greece and Spain. Additionally, the average European consumer had to endure financial setbacks, causing doubt in the general future of the entire European Union, as evident in the consumer confidence statistics, which in turn raised the question, if several handpicked countries should step out of the EU in order to improve its economic position. Greece, while perhaps experiencing the largest economic drought out of all European countries, improved on its inflation rate. The situation within the country is slowly improving itself as a result of a recent bailout as well as economic stimulus packages issued by the European Union. Furthermore, the Greek government managed its revenues and expenses more competently in comparison to the prime of the global and the Greek financial crisis, with annual expenses only slightly exceeding yearly revenues.

Graph and download economic data for Inflation, consumer prices for the World (FPCPITOTLZGWLD) from 1981 to 2024 about World, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, and price.

The average for 2024 based on 8 countries was 5 percent. The highest value was in Laos: 23.1 percent and the lowest value was in Brunei: -0.4 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2024. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.