A rise in prices is felt differently by those who earn, those who save, those who sell and those who owe. What is fair when money buys less than it did?
The picture
What the numbers show, read from the Data library each time the page opens.
How to read the chart above, and the words it uses.
How to read the data
The figure is how much a typical basket of household goods costs now compared with a year before. A rise means money buys less; a fall means it buys more. Your own prices may differ from the average.
Key terms
Inflation
A general rise in prices over time.
Consumer price index
The cost of a fixed basket of goods and services, tracked over time.
Deflation
A general fall in prices.
Who has a stake
Each interest, then readings from the Catholic library and the Classics library that bear on it, oldest first. Choose a group to read.
Pay that keeps up with what the household must buy, and not being squeezed between a fixed income and rising prices.
Money set aside, pensions and fixed payments that keep their worth, and a return that is not eaten away.
Prices that cover rising costs, honest weights and measures, and the ability to plan without guessing what money will be worth.
A currency that people trust and, where the state owes a great deal, the pull to let money lose value in preference to raising taxes or cutting spending.
For discussion
When money buys less than before, how should the burden be shared between those whose pay rises more slowly than prices and those who set the prices?
What does a government owe to savers and pensioners whose claims are fixed in money, and what may it fairly ask of them?
Where a state owes a great deal, is it just to let money lose value rather than raise taxes or cut spending, and who should decide?
