## Keeping Prices Steady

Review this section on inflation. Inflation is essential for the US consumer because it affects buying power and how far the income dollar will reach.

The third macroeconomic goal is to keep overall prices for goods and services fairly steady. The situation in which the average of all prices of goods and services is rising is called inflation. Inflation's higher prices reduce purchasing power, the value of what money can buy. Purchasing power is a function of two things: inflation and income. If incomes rise at the same rate as inflation, there is no change in purchasing power. If prices go up but income doesn’t rise or rises at a slower rate, a given amount of income buys less, and purchasing power falls. For example, if the price of a basket of groceries rises from $30 to$40 but your salary remains the same, you can buy only 75 percent as many groceries ($30 ÷$40) for $30. Your purchasing power declines by 25 percent ($10 ÷ \$40). If incomes rise at a rate faster than inflation, then purchasing power increases. So you can, in fact, have rising purchasing power even if inflation is increasing. Typically, however, inflation rises faster than incomes, leading to a decrease in purchasing power.

Inflation affects both personal and business decisions. When prices are rising, people tend to spend more – before their purchasing power declines further. Businesses that expect inflation often increase their supplies, and people often speed up planned purchases of cars and major appliances.

From the early 2000s to April 2017, inflation in the United States was very low, in the 0.1 to 3.8 percent range; for 2016 it was 1.3 percent. For comparison, in the 1980s, the United States had periods of inflation in the 12 to 13 percent range. Some nations have had high double- and even triple-digit inflation in recent years. As of early 2017, the monthly inflation rate in Venezuela was an astounding 741 percent, followed by the African country of South Sudan at 273 percent.

Exhibit 1.7 Nespresso Buyers of Nespresso coffee, KitKat chocolate bars, and Purina pet food are paying more for these items as global food giant Nestlé raises prices. Increasing input costs, such as costs of raw materials, have been hard on food businesses, raising the price of production, packaging, and transportation.How might fluctuations in the producer price index (PPI) affect the consumer price index (CPI) and why?

Source: Rice University, https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/1-4-macroeconomics-the-big-picture