What causes inflation and how is it controlled?

Inflation happens when things you buy every day get more expensive, and it’s controlled by people who make sure prices don’t go too high too fast.

Imagine your piggy bank has 10 coins, and you use them to buy candy from the store. If the store owner gets more money from other customers, they might decide to raise the price of candy, now it takes more than 10 coins to get the same amount of candy. That’s inflation.

Now imagine there are many stores like this, and all of them start raising prices because they have more money. Soon, everything you buy costs more, that's when inflation feels like it's everywhere!

To control inflation, people called central bankers (like the boss of a big piggy bank) watch how much money is flowing around. If too much money is moving fast, they might make it harder to borrow money or slow down how much new money gets added into the system.

It’s like when you have a toy factory that makes too many toys at once, there are so many toys, each one isn’t as special anymore. The central bankers help keep things balanced so prices don’t get out of hand.

Take the quiz →

Examples

  1. A baker raises the price of bread because it costs more to make it.
  2. The government prints too much money, so everyone has more cash but things cost more.
  3. When people want to buy more stuff than there is available, prices go up.

Ask a question

See also

Discussion

Recent activity