Inflation: Difference between revisions

Most inflation indices are calculated from weighted averages of selected price changes. This necessarily introduces distortion, and can lead to legitimate disputes about what the true inflation rate is. This problem can be overcome by including all available price changes in the calculation, and then choosing the [[median]] value.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.clevelandfed.org/Research/commentary/1991/1201.pdf |title=Median Price Changes: An Alternative Approach to Measuring Current Monetary Inflation |access-date=May 21, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515145028/http://www.clevelandfed.org/Research/commentary/1991/1201.pdf |archive-date=May 15, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> In some other cases, governments may intentionally report false inflation rates; for instance, during the presidency of [[Cristina Kirchner]] (2007–2015) the [[government of Argentina]] was criticised for manipulating economic data, such as inflation and GDP figures, for political gain and to reduce payments on its inflation-indexed debt.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/02/us-imf-argentina-idUSBRE91019920130202 |title=IMF reprimands Argentina for inaccurate economic data |access-date=February 2, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-01/argentina-becomes-first-nation-censured-by-imf-on-inflation-data.html |title=Argentina Becomes First Nation Censured by IMF on Economic Data |access-date=February 2, 2013}}</ref>

 

Historically, a great deal of economic literature was concerned with the question of what causes inflation and what effect it has. There were different schools of thought as to the causes of inflation. Most can be divided into two broad areas: quality theories of inflation and quantity theories of inflation.