It’s causes, effect and remedies.
By: Subrat Choudhury
Inflation and Deflation
I
INTRODUCTION
Inflation and Deflation, in economics, terms used to describe, respectively, a decline or an increase in the value of money, in relation to the goods and services it will buy. Inflation is the pervasive and sustained rise in the aggregate level of prices measured by an index of the cost of various goods and services. Repetitive price increases erode the purchasing power of money and other financial assets with fixed values, creating serious economic distortions and uncertainty. Inflation results when actual economic pressures and anticipation of future developments cause the demand for goods and services to exceed the supply available at existing prices or when available output is restricted by faltering productivity and marketplace constraints. Sustained price increases were historically directly linked to wars, poor harvests, political upheavals, or other unique events. Deflation involves a sustained decline in the aggregate level of prices, such as occurred during the Great Depression of the 1930s; it is usually associated with a prolonged erosion of economic activity and high unemployment. Widespread price declines have become rare, however, and inflation is now the dominant variable affecting public and private economic planning.
II
KINDS OF INFLATION
When the upward trend of prices is gradual and irregular, averaging only a few percentage points each year, such creeping inflation is not considered a serious threat to economic and social progress. It may even stimulate economic activity: The illusion of personal income growth beyond actual productivity may encourage consumption; housing investment may increase in anticipation of future price appreciation; business investment in plants and equipment may accelerate as prices rise more rapidly than costs; and personal, business, and government borrowers realize that loans will be repaid with
Bibliography: Microsoft Encarta 2009 CNN-IBN Economic times Business Line http://www.economywatch.com/inflation/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation 37