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Economics A level Edexcel A > Inflation > Flashcards

Inflation Flashcards

1
Q

what is inflation

A
  • the persistent increase of prices in an economy in a year
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2
Q

what is disinflation

A

when prices are rising, but at a slower rate than before

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3
Q

what is deflation

A

the persistent fall in prices in an economy in a year, occurs when the inflation rate is negative

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4
Q

how to carry out a consumer price index

A
  • expenditure survey carried out
  • a consumer basket of most popular goods and services is formed with avg prices attached
  • prices of these goods and services are weighted based on percentage of income
  • weighted prices are added to give total weighted price of the basket
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5
Q

how to work out index number

A

raw number / base year raw number x 100

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6
Q

how to work out annual inflation rate

A

work out percentage change of index numbers

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7
Q

percentage change equation

A

change divided by original x 100

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8
Q

what is the RPI

A
  • alternative measure of inflation
  • same as the CPI, but housing costs are included
  • also calculated using an arithmetic mean, whilst CPU uses geometric mean, so the RPI will give higher measures
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9
Q

problems with using CPI

A
  • personal inflation rates differ, not everybody will be buying the goods and services in the basket, eg low vs high income households
  • certain goods will be subject to significant price fluctuations which could distort the overall CPI inflation rate eg food and energy(gas, electricity and fuel) as demand and supply of these are very price inelastic, so any change in these will cause a higher price, therefore higher CPI
  • they don’t include housing costs like rent, mortgage payments, council tax, but households spend lots of money on these, can be fixed using CPIH(cpi with housing)
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10
Q

what is core CPI

A

the CPI minus price inelastic goods like food, energy

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11
Q

when would we use PPI(producer price index)

A

if we think that changes in energy prices would affect CPI in the future

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12
Q

when does demand pull inflation occur

A

when demand shifts to the right, increase in economic growth but increase in demand pull inflationary pressure

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13
Q

why does demand pull inflationary pressure occur

A
  • when AD shifts to the right, there is greater pressure on existing factors of production to produce more output, they are becoming scarcer, so prices of these scarce resources are going up, price of capital, land will increase, meaning firms have to increase their costs of production, they will then pass on these costs as higher prices
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14
Q

things that’ll shift AD right

A
  • decrease IR
  • decrease income or corporation tax
  • increased consumer business confidence
  • increased govt spending
  • weak exchange rate
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15
Q

when does cost push inflation occur

A

when SRAS shifts to the left

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16
Q

why does cost push inflation occur

A
  • leftward shifts of SRAS mean that cost of production for firms will increase, so they’ll be passing those higher costs onto consumers in the form of higher prices
17
Q

when does SRAS shift to the left

A
  • increase raw material prices
  • increased wages
  • increased business taxes like VAT
  • increased price of imported raw materials due to a weaker exchange rate
18
Q

costs of high inflation

A
  • loss of purchasing power for households and workers in the economy - assuming that wages and incomes are not rising with inflation, households and workers are worse off, can reduce their ability to buy basic goods and services, can push those on lower incomes into poverty
  • erosion of savings - if interest rates are not rising in line with inflation, savings lose value, bad for those who rely on savings, eg unemployed or pensioners, also reduces MPS, bad for long term health of economy
  • lower export competitiveness- if inflation is high in one country compared to another, exports are gonna be less internationally competitive, reducing demand for exports and revenue from exports and worsening the current account position, very bad for trade reliant countries
  • wage/consumer price spirals - risk of hyperinflation- higher inflation rates, workers will bargain for higher wages, if firms allow this, their cost of production will increase, who will pass on higher costs as higher prices, increasing inflation, workers will then ask for even higher prices etc
    • rational consumers buy more to save for the future, increase consumption, increase AD and push up demand pull inflation
    • menu costs - increased prices means firms have to print more menus, new price catalogs, which is costly for them and they pass on these costs
  • fiscal drag - when inflation is rising, workers are receiving higher incomes but only in line with inflation, workers not actually better off, but they still get put into higher tax bands, paying more income tax, living standards will decrease, but good for govt as they receive a tax revenue windfall (assumption that progressive income tax doesn’t rise in line w inflation)
  • inflationary noise - when inflation rates are volatile (rise plateau, rise plateau), ppl start to lose understanding of what’s happening with price and why, uncertainty in economy, causes consumers to reduce consumption and firms to reduce long term investment
19
Q

benefits on inflation

A
  • workers can bargain for higher wages, even if all they get is an inflation equal price
  • consumption is natural with low and stable inflation - consumers buy goods and services when they need to
  • firms are encouraged to increase output if inflation is low and stable because they know they can raise their prices and earn more revenue
  • small inflation means that unemployment stays low in a recession- in recessions, firms more likely to sack workers as revenue is falling, but its hard for firms to do this, dont wanna lose skilled workers - so firms can raise their prices in line with inflation, and get an increase in revenue, and can increase workers pay by a smaller percentage than inflation rate
  • reduces real value of debt - always a fixed value, so if wages, revenue etc are rising, it’s easier to service debt
  • inflation can improve the state of govt finances - govt get a fiscal windfall during inflation - as taxes rise, govt gets more revenue - govt may not always be spending that much on public goods and services
20
Q

evaluation points on the costs and benefits of inflation

A
  • rate - in low and stable inflation, tends to be more benefits than costs vice versa
  • cause - demand pull inflation is more favourable than cost push - with demand pull, theres higher growth, lower unemployment, but a cost push, higher unemployment and lower growth, demand pull also easier to fix with contractionary demand side policies
  • duration - long term high rates of inflation can become anticipated and spiral out of control
21
Q

what is demand side deflation and features of it

A
  • AD shifts left, reduction in price level, lower economic growth, we assume that the deflation could be long term and anticipated,
22
Q

features of supply side deflation

A
  • SRAS shifts to the right, reduction in PL, but comes with higher growth and short term unanticipated (not rlly gonna last)
23
Q

why is anticipated deflation bad

A
  • rational consumers may delay spending, why buy now when prices will decrease more later?, but this is bad for the economy because consumption will fall, causing a fall in AD, which would encourage firms to reduce prices further, making deflation worse
  • when AD falls, there is lower growth and higher unemployment
  • real interest rates will always be positive because deflation is negative, so we will always be adding to the nominal rate, higher IR increases MPS, lower consumption, lower AD, higher deflation
  • increases real value of debt - prices falling means that profits and incomes will also fall, as firms will be making less revenue and debt is always fixed, and lower incomes make it harder to pay off debts
24
Q

what are real interest rates

A

nominal interest rates - inflation rate

25
Q

why is short term (unanticipated) deflation beneficial

A
  • falling prices for consumers
  • falling input prices for firms
26
Q

what policies could be used to bring down demand pull inflation

A
  • contractionary demand side policies(monetary or fiscal), eg a cut in govt spending or an increase in tax
27
Q

evaluation points for policies which could be used to target inflation

A
  • contractionary fiscal policy unlikely to fix inflation, as we know that it’s the central banks job to target inflation(so use monetary policy)
  • central banks are more trustworthy than the government , so would be more successful to get to that inflation target
  • trade offs with objectives - demand pull inflation may come down but may lead to lower economic growth and higher unemployment (could be a recession)
  • impact on investment - higher interest rates detract investment, increases the cost of borrowing for firms, bad for short and long run growth, lower productivity, worsening of the competitiveness of the economy
  • impact on the indebted - higher IR will have a negative impact on those who owe debt, could go bankrupt and living standards may suffer, if businesses go bankrupt, u employment may occur
  • stronger exchange rate - higher IR could strengthen exchange rate and could widen a current account deficit, could lead to hot money inflows into the economy
28
Q

why is monetary policy more suitable to target inflation

A

the monetary policy transmission mechanism has got a variety of avenues where interest rates changes can feed through into the economy

29
Q

what is hot money

A

savings that chase the interest rate, eg if interest rates are relatively high in one country, savers from one country will move their money to that country, increasing the demand of the currency in the country they moved the money to

30
Q

how to reduce cost push inflation (shifts in SRAS)

A
  • implement or reduce inflation target as it would reduce/limit the amount that wages rise in the economy
  • cutting VAT/give subsidies to firms to reduce their costs of production
  • central banks can intervene in FOREX markets to strengthen the exchange rate, as a stronger exchange rate makes imports cheaper, which would reduce the price of imported raw materials, reduce costs of production for firms who import raw materials
31
Q

evaluation points for reducing cost push inflation

A
  • increasing subsidies or cutting VAT has a significant government cost and may worsen govt finances
  • intervention in forex not very smart as many countries have free floating exchange rates
  • cost push inflation is usually short term, eg costs of raw materials dont usually stay high for a long time, don’t need to worry abt them as much
  • can’t really do anything abt them, so shouldn’t really worry
32
Q

how to reduce high long term inflation rates

A
  • supply side policies, to increase the productive capacity of the economy and long run rates of economic growth, and reduce the amount of pressure thats on factors of production consistently (interventionist or market based)

-

33
Q

evaluation for helping high long term inflation rates

A

1). no guarantee of success
2) costs - risk of wasteful spending/high oppurtunity cost
3) negative stakeholder impact
4) time lags
- depends on type of inflation
- rate of inflation, if inflation is around 2% we dont need to do anything

Economics A level Edexcel A (22 decks)

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