Англійська мова для економістів (English for Economists)
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services outweigh price increases on all others. Relative price is the price of one good in comparison with the price of other goods.

Because inflation and deflation are measured in terms of average price levels, it is possible for individual prices to rise or fall continuously without changing the average price level. Nominal income is the amount of money you receive in a particular time period; it is measured in current dollars. Real income, by contrast, is the purchasing power of that money, as measured by the quantity of goods and services your dollars will buy. If the number of dollars you receive every year is always the same, your nominal income doesn't change — but your real income will rise or fall with price changes.

There are two basic points about inflation to be learned:

-  Not all prices rise at the same rate during an inflation. Typically, some prices rise very rapidly, others only modestly, and still others not at all.

-  Not everyone suffers equally from inflation. Those people who consume the goods and services that are rising faster in price bear a greater burden of inflation; their real incomes fall more. Other consumers bear a lesser burden, or even none at all, depending on how fast the prices rise for the goods they enjoy.

Money illusion is the use of nominal dollars rather than real dollars to gauge changes in one's income or wealth.

The most common measure of inflation is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). As its name suggests, the CPI is a mechanism for measuring changes in the average price of consumer goods and services.

Inflation Rate is the annual rate of increase in the average price level.

Price stability is the absence of significant changes in the average price level; officially defined as a rate of inflation of less than 3 percent. Our goal of «full» employment is defined as the lowest rate of unemployment consistent with stable prices.

The most familiar form of inflation is called demand-pull inflation. Demand-pull inflation is an increase in the price level initiated by excessive aggregate demand. The name suggests that demand is pulling the price level. If the demand for goods and services rises faster than production, there simply won't be enough goods and services to go around.

Cost-push inflation is an increase in the price level initiated by an increase in the cost of production. In 1979, for example, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sharply increased the price of oil. For domestic producers, this action meant a significant increase in the cost of producing goods and services. Accordingly, domestic producers could no longer afford to sell goods at prevailing prices. They had to raise prices. The result was a cost-push inflation.