Britain's inflation 'problem' isn't as unusual as you think
Received wisdom has it that Britain's inflation is unusually high when compared to other countries. But is that really the case?
We constantly hear about how the UK is an outlier in the West when it comes to inflation. While our CPI is running at 3.7%, prices are barely budging in other countries the US in particular. That's grist to the mill of the deflationists (whose cause we have enormous sympathy with).
But is it really so? Perhaps not.
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You can argue the toss on the methodology with this one but it is worth noting that on the same method, Eurozone CPI comes in at about 1.5% that's a significant difference. So why might inflation be more obvious and so very similar in the US and UK than in Europe?
Presumably because both of them have followed very similar monetary policies since the beginning of the financial crisis lots of QE (money printing) and the tolerance of weak currencies. Something for both the inflationists and the deflationists to ponder over.
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