Pain in the pockets as inflation spirals

Economists, like any other sub-sector of specialised interest, have their own jargon or technical terms used to describe various indicators in their field. Outsiders may feel the jargon is used to close them out, but those on the inside use it to more accurately describe trends, indicators, phenomena and others. Often, something gets lost and misinterpretation may occur in simplifying jargon.

When the wave of tax, levy and tariff increases were announced in April this year, economists noted that these would result in inflationary pressures, some in terms of knock-on effects, others in terms of transitory effects. With inflation, or the average increase in the prices of goods and services, having trended at record lows last year, averaging just 1.9 percent, economists expected another technical term, ‘base effects’ to come into play this year.