inflation
n. uncountablen. a general increase in prices and a fall in the purchasing value of money. When this happens, you can buy less with the same amount of cash than you could before.
n. a persistent, general increase in the price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. Often measured as an annual percentage increase, it corresponds to a reduction in the purchasing power of a given currency.
High inflation makes it harder for families to afford groceries.
The central bank raised interest rates in an attempt to curb rising inflation and stabilize the economy.
Economists distinguish between cost-push inflation, driven by rising production costs, and demand-pull inflation, which occurs when consumer spending outpaces the economy's productive capacity.
From Middle English, borrowed from Old French inflation (“swelling”), from Latin īnflātiō (“expansion", "blowing up”), from īnflātus, the perfect passive participle of īnflō (“blow into, expand”), from in (“into”) + flō (“blow”). By surface analysis, inflate + -ion.
Commonly used with the verbs 'curb', 'tackle', or 'hedge against'.