The inflation rate is the measure of the rate of increase in the price index over time. The prices of goods and services rise in an economy over time. Consequently the purchasing power of every dollar decreases over time. The current inflation rate isn’t too bad at the time of writing this post. The 2010 average is somewhere around 1.6%, although the final figures have yet to come in.
Here’s a comparison to that figure over the past 10 years (The 2009 inflation rate was actually -0.4%, although I couldn’t figure out how to make my wordpress chart show negative figures, so I just set it to zero):
[easychart type=”horizbar” title=”Inflation Rates” groupnames=”Inflation Rates” valuenames=”2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010″ group1values=”2.8,1.6,2.3,2.7,3.4,3.2,2.8,3.8,0,1.6″ ]