Business, Legal & Accounting Glossary
The cost of borrowing money, shown as a percentage. Interest rates can be fixed (you pay the same percentage throughout the life of the loan) or variable.
The percentage increase in the price of goods and services, usually annually.
The inflation rate is the increase in prices for a basket of goods and services expressed on a yearly basis. Put simply, if the basket costs $100 in year 1 and $104 in year 2, the inflation rate is 4%.
Perhaps the most common measure of the inflation rate is the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is based on a survey of tens of thousands of items Americans commonly purchase. Other important measures of the inflation rate are the Producer Price Index and the GDP Price Deflator.
The inflation rate has enormous consequences for the economy and, by extension, investors. A rising inflation rate prompts the Federal Reserve Board to push up interest rates to slow the economy; a declining inflation rate encourages the Fed to loosen monetary policy to stimulate demand. Bond prices move inversely with interest rates; thus a lower inflation rate increases bond prices, a higher rate reduces them. The relationship between stocks and the inflation rate is less fixed, but a modest inflation rate usually provides a good environment for stock prices.
When interest rates are low, more people are willing to buy houses.
Retailers try to encourage people to buy large-ticket items by offering low-interest rates on their purchases.
Due to the inflation rate being somewhat unpredictable each year, it is prudent to have extra money saved to prevent a shortage of funds.
High inflation rates increase the prices of goods and services annually, decreasing the value of money and causing problems in the economy.
Given the recent year’s staggering inflation rate, company executives were not surprised that their sales had fallen off and couldn’t blame consumers for feeling skittish.
ex-post real interest rate
inflation target
interest
Phillips curve
deflationary spiral
down
Fisher effect
underemployment equilibrium
floating-rate
personal inflation rate
headline inflation rate
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This glossary post was last updated: 5th November, 2021 | 0 Views.