There are three main causes of inflation: demand-pull inflation, cost-push inflation, and built-in inflation.

• Demand-pull inflation refers to situations where there are not enough products or services being produced to keep up with demand, causing their prices to increase.

• Cost-push inflation, on the other hand, occurs when the cost of producing products and services rises, forcing businesses to raise their prices.

• Built-in inflation (which is sometimes referred to as a wage-price spiral) occurs when workers demand higher wages to keep up with rising living costs. This in turn causes businesses to raise their prices in order to offset their rising wage costs, leading to a self-reinforcing loop of wage and price increases.

Too much inflation is generally considered bad for an economy, while too little inflation is also considered harmful. Many economists advocate for a middle-ground of low to moderate inflation, of around 2% per year.

Generally speaking, higher inflation harms savers because it erodes the purchasing power of the money they have saved. However, it can benefit borrowers because the inflation-adjusted value of their outstanding debts shrinks over time.

Inflation can affect the economy in several ways. For example, if inflation causes a nation’s currency to decline, this can benefit exporters by making their goods more affordable when priced in the currency of foreign nations.

On the other hand, this could harm importers by making foreign-made goods more expensive. Higher inflation can also encourage spending, as consumers will aim to purchase goods quickly before their prices rise further. Savers, on the other hand, could see the real value of their savings erode, limiting their ability to spend or invest in the future.

In 2022, inflation rates in the U.S. and around the world rose to their highest levels since the early 1980s. While there is no single reason for this rapid rise in global prices, a series of events worked together to boost inflation to such high levels.

The COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 led to lockdowns and other restrictive measures that greatly disrupted global supply chains, from factory closures to bottlenecks at maritime ports. At the same time, governments issued stimulus checks and increased unemployment benefits to help blunt the financial impact of these measures on individuals and small businesses. When COVID vaccines became widespread and the economy rapidly bounced back, demand (fueled in part by stimulus money and low interest rates) quickly outpaced supply, which still struggled to get back to pre-COVID levels.

Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 led to a series of economic sanctions and trade restrictions on Russia, limiting the world's supply of oil and gas since Russia is a large producer of fossil fuels. At the same time, food prices rose as Ukraine's large grain harvests could not be exported. As fuel and food prices rose, it led to similar increases down the value chains.