Venezuela has the world’s highest inflation rate, with a rate that has risen past one million percent in recent years. Prices in Venezuela have fluctuated so quickly at times that retailers have ceased posting price tags on items and instead urged consumers to just ask employees how much each item cost that day. Hyperinflation is an economic crisis caused by a government overspending (typically as a result of war, a regime change, or socioeconomic circumstances that reduce funding from tax collection) and issuing massive quantities of additional money to meet its expenses.
Venezuela’s economy used to be the envy of South America, with high per-capita income thanks to the world’s greatest oil reserves. However, the country’s substantial reliance on petroleum revenues made it particularly vulnerable to oil price swings in the 1980s and 1990s. Oil prices fell from $100 per barrel in 2014 to less than $30 per barrel in early 2016, sending the country’s economy into a tailspin from which it has yet to fully recover.
Sudan had the second-highest inflation rate in the world at the start of 2022, at 340.0 percent. Sudanese inflation has soared in recent years, fueled by food, beverages, and an underground market for US money. Inflationary pressures became so severe that protests erupted, leading to President Omar al-ouster Bashir’s in April 2019. Sudan’s transitional authorities are now in charge of reviving an economy that has been ravaged by years of mismanagement.
Is there inflation in Switzerland?
The fact that the cost of living in Switzerland is already so high contributes to the low inflation rate.
“When compared to our European neighbors, one of the characteristics of Switzerland is that we tend to have high costs in nearly everything,” said Nannette Hechler-Fayd’herbe, global head of economics and research at Credit Suisse.
A cottage industry of ‘delivery address’ enterprises has developed up an hour’s drive from Zurich, just across the border into Germany, charging Swiss clients a nominal charge to hold products they order at cheap German rates and later collect.
“People come here because they can get good deals,” said German entrepreneur Mandy Klein, who started her delivery address business from home in 2009 and now has two locations in the gorgeous lakeside German border town of Constance.
The brisk delivery commerce in Constance demonstrates Swiss households’ desire to cut costs wherever they can. Despite this, Eurostat data reveal that the price level for household consumption expenditure in Switzerland was still 60% higher in 2020 than the euro area average.
As a result, consumer groups, fed up with Switzerland’s reputation as a “high-price island,” agitated for political action, resulting in two legislative reforms that took effect at the start of this year to provide consumers a better deal.
The first strengthened Switzerland’s cartel law, making it more difficult for companies to mark up their pricing for the Swiss market.
The second legislation outlawed so-called geo-blocking, which is a technique employed by shops to prevent internet buyers from purchasing cheaper goods or services from foreign websites by redirecting them to Swiss websites, for example.
Prisca Birrer-Heimo, a Social Democrat lawmaker who co-led a ‘fair price initiative’ demanding reform, has already seen results.
Swiss market characteristics, as well as the weighting of certain essential goods in the consumer price index (CPI), contribute to Switzerland’s low inflation.
According to OECD data, healthcare, which is delivered by private enterprises, accounts for 17 percent of the CPI index, compared to 7% in the United States and 5% in Germany. The government has pushed health insurers to lower premiums.
“This has been an area that, rather than causing inflation and price hikes, has experienced the opposite as a result of political pressure,” said Credit Suisse’s Hechler-Fayd’herbe.
Hydropower accounts for about 57 percent of Switzerland’s energy production, thanks to the country’s lakes, rivers, and mountainous terrain, according to the federal energy office, making the Swiss significantly less vulnerable to rising oil and gas prices than other countries.
According to OECD data, energy accounts for only 5% of the Swiss CPI basket, compared to 7% in the US and 10% in Germany, where consumers are significantly more susceptible to growing fossil fuel prices.
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“Our best forecast is that (average) inflation in Switzerland will be 1.8 percent in 2022,” said Credit Suisse’s Hechler-Fayd’herbe, “but the current spike in oil prices raises the probability of a somewhat higher rate.” “We expect inflation to average 1.0 percent in 2023.”
There is less demand for pay increases because earnings are already higher than in practically every other European country. Swisscom (SCMN.S), a telecommunications company, is only boosting compensation by 0.9 percent this year.
The strong franc is also beneficial. The franc, which is seen as a safe haven, temporarily climbed over parity with the euro this month, hitting a seven-year high.
The currency’s purchasing power protects Switzerland from increased import costs and feeds into the country’s stable price environment, giving exporters an advantage over overseas competitors experiencing higher inflation.
Half of the electrical and mechanical engineering industry’s exports, according to Jean-Philippe Kohl, vice director and head of economic policy at Swissmem, travel to the euro zone, where inflation is hovering around 6%.
“A Swiss firm that manufactures a product here and sells it in the euro zone will be able to offer it at a greater price sooner or later… therefore you profit from it,” he said.
Which country will have the lowest inflation rate in 2021?
Japan has the lowest inflation rate of the major developed and emerging economies in November 2021, at 0.6 percent (compared to the same month of the previous year).
Is inflation zero possible?
Regardless of whether the Mack bill succeeds, the Fed will have to assess if it still intends to pursue lower inflation. We evaluated the costs of maintaining a zero inflation rate and found that, contrary to prior research, the costs of maintaining a zero inflation rate are likely to be considerable and permanent: a continued loss of 1 to 3% of GDP each year, with increased unemployment rates as a result. As a result, achieving zero inflation would impose significant actual costs on the American economy.
Firms are hesitant to slash salaries, which is why zero inflation imposes such high costs for the economy. Some businesses and industries perform better than others in both good and bad times. To account for these disparities in economic fortunes, wages must be adjusted. Relative salaries can easily adapt in times of mild inflation and productivity development. Unlucky businesses may be able to boost wages by less than the national average, while fortunate businesses may be able to raise wages by more than the national average. However, if productivity growth is low (as it has been in the United States since the early 1970s) and there is no inflation, firms that need to reduce their relative wages can only do so by reducing their employees’ money compensation. They maintain relative salaries too high and employment too low because they don’t want to do this. The effects on the economy as a whole are bigger than the employment consequences of the impacted firms due to spillovers.
What country has printed an excessive amount of money?
Zimbabwe banknotes ranging from $10 to $100 billion were created over the course of a year. The size of the currency scalars indicates how severe the hyperinflation is.
What is India’s inflation rate?
According to data provided by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday, India’s retail inflation rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 6.07 percent in February 2022. According to a Reuters poll of 36 economists, the reading was expected to fall to 5.93 percent on an annual basis in February.
How much is inflation in Germany?
WIESBADEN, Germany In March 2022, Germany’s inflation rate is anticipated to be +7.3 percent. The change in the consumer price index (CPI) from the same month a year before is used to calculate the inflation rate.
Is English spoken in Switzerland?
Swiss German is spoken by approximately 63 percent of the population (the vast majority of those people genuinely speak Swiss German), French by 23%, Italian by 8%, and Romansh by 0.5 percent (approximately 50,000 people).
According to 2019 data, 68 percent of over-15s utilize more than one language at least once a week, whether chatting with relatives or coworkers, surfing the internet, reading, or watching TV. The remaining 32%, down from 36% in 2014, indicated they only speak one language. The older a person gets, the more likely it is that they will exclusively speak one language. According to the survey, 38 percent use two languages on a regular basis, 21 percent use three, 6.4 percent use four, and 1.7 percent use at least five.
English is the most widely spoken non-national language in Switzerland, with 45 percent of the population speaking it regularly. The German-speaking section of the country has a higher English literacy rate than the Italian- and French-speaking regions (46 percent vs 37 percent and 43 percent respectively).
Nearly three-quarters of 15-24-year-olds stated they spoke, wrote, read, or listened to English at least once a week in 2019, up ten percentage points from 2014.
What is the inflation rate in China?
Inflation in China was 2.42 percent in 2020, down 0.48 percent from 2019. In 2019, China’s inflation rate was 2.90 percent, up 0.82 percent from 2018. The annual inflation rate in China was 2.07% in 2018, up 0.48 percent from 2017. In 2017, China’s inflation rate was 1.59 percent, down 0.41 percent from 2016.