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In economics, inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.〔''See:'' * (Glossary); * (Glossary) * (Glossary) * (Glossary)〕 When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation reflects a reduction in the purchasing power per unit of money – a loss of real value in the medium of exchange and unit of account within the economy.〔(Why price stability? ), Central Bank of Iceland, Accessed on September 11, 2008.〕〔Paul H. Walgenbach, Norman E. Dittrich and Ernest I. Hanson, (1973), Financial Accounting, New York: Harcourt Brace Javonovich, Inc. Page 429. "The Measuring Unit principle: The unit of measure in accounting shall be the base money unit of the most relevant currency. This principle also assumes that the unit of measure is stable; that is, changes in its general purchasing power are not considered sufficiently important to require adjustments to the basic financial statements."〕 A chief measure of price inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index (normally the consumer price index) over time. The opposite of inflation is deflation. Inflation affects an economy in various ways, both positive and negative. Negative effects of inflation include an increase in the opportunity cost of holding money, uncertainty over future inflation which may discourage investment and savings, and if inflation were rapid enough, shortages of goods as consumers begin hoarding out of concern that prices will increase in the future. Positive effects include reducing the real burden of public and private debt, keeping nominal interest rates above zero so that central banks can adjust interest rates to stabilize the economy, and reducing unemployment due to nominal wage rigidity. Economists generally believe that high rates of inflation and hyperinflation are caused by an excessive growth of the money supply.〔Robert Barro and Vittorio Grilli (1994), ''European Macroeconomics'', Ch. 8, p. 139, Fig. 8.1. Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-57764-7.〕 However, money supply growth does not necessarily cause inflation. Some economists maintain that under the conditions of a liquidity trap, large monetary injections are like "pushing on a string".〔(【引用サイトリンク】Paul Krugman "> author2 = Gauti Eggertsson )〕 Views on which factors determine low to moderate rates of inflation are more varied. Low or moderate inflation may be attributed to fluctuations in real demand for goods and services, or changes in available supplies such as during scarcities.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=MZM velocity )〕 However, the consensus view is that a long sustained period of inflation is caused by money supply growing faster than the rate of economic growth. Today, most economists favor a low and steady rate of inflation.〔Hummel, Jeffrey Rogers. "Death and Taxes, Including Inflation: the Public versus Economists" (January 2007).() p.56〕 Low (as opposed to zero or negative) inflation reduces the severity of economic recessions by enabling the labor market to adjust more quickly in a downturn, and reduces the risk that a liquidity trap prevents monetary policy from stabilizing the economy.〔"(Escaping from a Liquidity Trap and Deflation: The Foolproof Way and Others )" Lars E.O. Svensson, ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'', Volume 17, Issue 4 Fall 2003, pp. 145–166〕 The task of keeping the rate of inflation low and stable is usually given to monetary authorities. Generally, these monetary authorities are the central banks that control monetary policy through the setting of interest rates, through open market operations, and through the setting of banking reserve requirements. ==History== Rapid increases in quantity of the money or in the overall money supply (or debasement of the means of exchange) have occurred in many different societies throughout history, changing with different forms of money used. For instance, when gold was used as currency, the government could collect gold coins, melt them down, mix them with other metals such as silver, copper or lead, and reissue them at the same nominal value. By diluting the gold with other metals, the government could issue more coins without also needing to increase the amount of gold used to make them. When the cost of each coin is lowered in this way, the government profits from an increase in seigniorage.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Annual Report (2006), Royal Canadian Mint, p. 4 )〕 This practice would increase the money supply but at the same time the relative value of each coin would be lowered. As the relative value of the coins becomes lower, consumers would need to give more coins in exchange for the same goods and services as before. These goods and services would experience a price increase as the value of each coin is reduced.〔Frank Shostak, "(Commodity Prices and Inflation: What's the connection", Mises Institute )〕 Song Dynasty China introduced the practice of printing paper money in order to create fiat currency. During the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the government spent a great deal of money fighting costly wars, and reacted by printing more money, leading to inflation. Fearing the inflation that plagued the Yuan dynasty, the Ming Dynasty initially rejected the use of paper money, and reverted to using copper coins. Historically, large infusions of gold or silver into an economy also led to inflation. From the second half of the 15th century to the first half of the 17th, Western Europe experienced a major inflationary cycle referred to as the "price revolution",〔Earl J. Hamilton, ''American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501–1650'' Harvard Economic Studies, 43 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1934)〕〔(John Munro: ''The Monetary Origins of the 'Price Revolution':South Germany Silver Mining, Merchant Banking, and Venetian Commerce, 1470–1540'', Toronto 2003 ) 〕 with prices on average rising perhaps sixfold over 150 years. This was largely caused by the sudden influx of gold and silver from the New World into Habsburg Spain. The silver spread throughout a previously cash-starved Europe and caused widespread inflation.〔(The Price Revolution in Europe: Empirical Results from a Structural Vectorautoregression Model. Peter Kugler and Peter Bernholz, University of Basel, 2007 ) (Demonstrates that it was the increased supply of precious metals that caused it and notes the obvious logical flaws in the contrary arguments that have become fashionable in recent decades)〕 Demographic factors also contributed to upward pressure on prices, with European population growth after depopulation caused by the Black Death pandemic. By the nineteenth century, economists categorized three separate factors that cause a rise or fall in the price of goods: a change in the ''value'' or production costs of the good, a change in the ''price of money'' which then was usually a fluctuation in the commodity price of the metallic content in the currency, and ''currency depreciation'' resulting from an increased supply of currency relative to the quantity of redeemable metal backing the currency. Following the proliferation of private banknote currency printed during the American Civil War, the term "inflation" started to appear as a direct reference to the ''currency depreciation'' that occurred as the quantity of redeemable banknotes outstripped the quantity of metal available for their redemption. At that time, the term inflation referred to the devaluation of the currency, and not to a rise in the price of goods.〔Michael F. Bryan, "(On the Origin and Evolution of the Word 'Inflation' )"〕 This relationship between the over-supply of banknotes and a resulting depreciation in their value was noted by earlier classical economists such as David Hume and David Ricardo, who would go on to examine and debate what effect a currency devaluation (later termed ''monetary inflation'') has on the price of goods (later termed ''price inflation'', and eventually just ''inflation'').〔Mark Blaug, "(Economic Theory in Retrospect )", pg. 129: "...this was the cause of inflation, or, to use the language of the day, 'the depreciation of banknotes.'"〕 The adoption of fiat currency by many countries, from the 18th century onwards, made much larger variations in the supply of money possible. Since then, huge increases in the supply of paper money have taken place in a number of countries, producing hyperinflations – episodes of extreme inflation rates much higher than those observed in earlier periods of commodity money. The hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic of Germany is a notable example. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Inflation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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