To What Extent Might It Be Argued That Inflation Is Preferable to Deflation?

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Inflation is the general and persistent increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money; whereas deflation is the general and persistent decrease in prices and the increase of the purchasing value of money. Historically the UK has only experienced deflation 3 times in the last century once in the 1930s where it was between 3-5% and more recently in 1960 inflation had been negative for three months with a height at 0.6%. and more recently in April 2015 where it reached 0.1%. The UK’s monetary policy is dedicated to the stability of inflation at 2.0%. Economic costs of inflation- Inflations economic costs would include damage to competitiveness as high inflation could cause spiralling price multiplier effect; as prices go up workers would demand higher wages so increasing business costs and another round of price rises to maintain business profits- making exports for expensive, thus reducing the demand for them causing a decrease and AD domestically. Additionally this may lead to unemployment as more costs to the firm i.e. menu costs. Change in inflation could also cause uncertainty to consumers/businesses to spend and invest as they don’t know what the future holds, this can decrease confidence in the market and potentially, in the longer term, cause and reduction in AD. Economic costs of deflation- deflation has proved to have several economic costs, the main cost is that it encourages differed expenditure where people’s expectations change and they delay spending in the hope of getting a better deal. This then results in a decrease in AD causing business revenues to fall and confidence to decrease delaying business investment and cutting costs, i.e. increasing unemployment, all of which could slow economic growth and force a recession as evidenced in the 1930s depression. Additionally deflation increases the real value of debt leading to
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