Inflation

25 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Inflation | Amazing Facts 4U

1. The term “inflation” is from the Latin term inflate, meaning to “blow up or inflate,” and it was first used in a monetary sense to describe “an increase in the amount of money” in 1838.
2. Inflation means a continued rise in prices while the value of money declines. Inflation decreases the value of money, making goods more expensive to buy.
3. The inflation rate is the percentage increase in the price of goods per year. If the inflation rate is 5%, then a $1 candy will cost $1.05 in a year.
4. Inflation influences the interest rate we get on our savings and the rate we pay on our mortgages. It also affects the level of pensions and benefits that you get.
5. The most frequently quoted and most significant indexes to measure inflation are the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and the Retail Prices Index (RPI). As the formula is different, usually CPI has a lower reading than RPI.
6. Historians cite runaway inflation as a major cause of ancient Rome’s fall.
7. A dollar from 1950 is now worth only $0.12.
8. The annual inflation rate in the United States has fluctuated greatly over its history, ranging from nearly zero inflation to 23% inflation. The federal government tries to keep inflation around 2 to 3%.
9. There are at least two main theories to explain inflation. (1) Prices rise as “Cost-Push inflation,” or inflation that begins when rising costs result in increased prices, and (2) “Demand-Pull inflation,” or when people’s ability to spend rises more rapidly than the availability of goods and services.
10. The movie Cleopatra cost $44 million to make in 1963. With inflation taken into account, the same movie would cost $350 million to make today.
11. Highest inflation rates in history are Hungary (July 1946 / 1.295×10¹⁶ %), Zimbabwe (Nov 2008 / 7.96×10¹⁰ %), Yugoslovia (Jan 1994 / 3.13×108 %), Germany (Oct 1923 / 29500 %),
12. Greece (Nov 1944 / 11300%) and China (May 1949 / 4210%).
13. Hyperinflation occurred in Germany in 1920, leading to great social unrest. The purchasing power of money fell so low that the German currency, the Mark became really worthless. Hitler blamed the Jews for the hyperinflation which helped pave the way for the Holocaust.
14. The paperback, German currency was exchanging at a rate of 4.2 per US dollar in 1914. By August 1923, it was 1 million papiermark per US dollar, and two months later, it was 238 million papiermark to one US dollar!
15. The amazing fact is that in Germany in November 1923, 1 pound of bread cost 3 billion; 1 pound of meat: 36 billion; 1 glass of beer: 4 billion.
16. Hungary holds the record for the largest banknote ever issued, but its banknote did not depict all the zeros. In fact, the amount was spelled out.
17. The post-world war II hyperinflation of Hungary holds the record for the most rapid monthly inflation increase ever: 41,900,000,000,000,000% for July 1946, which means prices doubled every 13.5 hours.
18. People in Hungary in 1946 were paying for their groceries with one hundred quintillions (100,000,000,000,000,000,000) pengő bills. People were carrying money around in suitcases, and banknotes were often stamped with new denominations as new money could not be printed quickly enough.
19. The first country to hyperinflate in the 21st century is Zimbabwe. In 2008, a loaf of bread cost 1.6 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. By April of 2008, the $50 million ZWD note was worth a little over one US dollar. They were printing so much money; they ran out of paper. The country was full of trillionaires and almost all of them were struggling to survive.
20. The Zimbabwean dollar banknote holds the record for the greatest number of zeros shown (100,000,000,000,000).
21. In 1942, the highest denomination of currency in Greece was the 50,000 drachma note. Just two years later in 1944 when 11,300% inflation occurred, it was the 100 trillion drachma note.
22. Historians have noted that war and inflation go hand-in-hand. Every war in the last century has brought high inflation.
23. Nations who were on the Gold Standard during the 19th century until 1914 experienced little or no inflationary trends.
24. In 1974, President Ford declared inflation “public enemy number one” and urged the public to wear WIN pins, or “Whip Inflation Now” pins. In fact, inflation was around 7% then. The people ridiculed the pins and even worn upside down to say “NIW,” or “Need Immediate Money.”
25. Adjusted for inflation, the top five highest-grossing movies of all time are Gone With the Wind ($1.6 billion), Star Wars, Sound of Music, ET: Extra-Terrestrial, and The Ten Commandments ($1 billion).

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~ By Amazing Facts 4U Team

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