What Is Deflation?
Deflation, or negativeinflation, happens when prices fall in an economy. Thesupply of goods may be higher than the demandfor those goods, but the buying power of money may be increasing. Buying power grows with a reduction in the money supply and a decrease in credit, which hurts consumer spending.
Key Takeaways
- Deflation is the general decline in the price level of goods and services.
- Deflation is associated with a contraction in the supply of money and credit.
- Deflation incentivizes people to hoard cash because they can buy more with a dollar in the future.
Causes of Deflation
Monetary deflation is caused by a decrease in the supply of money. The money supply is influenced bycentral banks, such as the Federal Reserve. When the supply of money and credit falls, without a corresponding decrease in economic output, then the prices of all goods tend to fall. With more goods produced than demand, businesses decrease their prices to spur buying.
Declining prices can also be caused by a decline inaggregate demand, a decrease in the total demand for goods and services, and increased productivity. Causes of this shift include reduced government spending, stock market failure, consumer desire to increase savings, and tightening monetary policies such as higher interest rates.
Milton Friedmanargued that under optimal policy, in which the central bank seeks a rate of deflation equal to the real interest rate on government bonds, the nominal rate should be zero, and the price level should fall steadily at the real rate of interest. His theory birthed the Friedman rule, amonetary policyrule.
Falling prices can naturally occur when the output of the economy grows faster than the supply of circulating money and credit, such as when technology advances productivity.
Consequences of Deflation
Deflation can ripple through the economy, cause high unemployment, and catapult a recession into a depression. When companies are unable to sell products and revenue decreases, they cut costs. This may include closing stores, plants, and warehouses, and laying off workers. Workers will decrease spending, leading to less demand and more deflation. This deflationary spiral that is hard to break.
A deflationary spiral can occur during periods of economic crisis, such as arecessionordepression, as economic output slows and demand for investment and consumption dries up. This may lead to an overall decline in asset prices as producers are forced to liquidate inventories that people no longer want to buy.
Consumers and businesses begin holding on to liquid money reserves to cushion against further financial loss. As more money is saved, less money is spent, further decreasing aggregate demand. Consumers have less incentive to spend money when they can reasonablyexpect that their money will have more purchasing power in the future.
When Do Periods of Deflation Occur?
Periods of deflation most commonly occur after long periods of artificial monetary expansion. The early 1930s was the last time significant deflation was experienced in the United States. The major contributor to this deflationary period was the fall in the money supply following catastrophic bank failures.
How Has Technology Affected Price Deflation?
Price deflation through increased productivity varies by industry, like the technology sector. Improvements in technology have resulted in significant reductions in the average cost per gigabyte of data. In 1980, the average cost of one gigabyte of data was $437,500; by 2014, the average cost was three cents. This reduction caused the prices of manufactured products that use this technology to fall.
What Is the Difference Between Deflation and Disinflation?
Deflation is a sustained decrease in the price level of goods and services, while disinflation is a decrease in the rate of inflation.
The Bottom Line
Deflation is the decline in the price level of goods and services associated with a contraction in the supply of money and credit. The money supply is influenced bycentral banks. When the supply of money falls, without a corresponding decrease in economic output, the prices of all goods tend to fall. Deflation can cause high unemployment, recession, or depression.
