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"But deflation can hurt economic growth, as consumers will delay purchasing products if they think they will be cheaper in future."
Not if people are already mostly only buying what they need to survive.
LOL. "I think I'll starve because I bet I can save 3.5% on food prices in a month"
Which is not the case for most people and certainly not the case for businesses and banks.
You're being downvoted but the amount of people I see in my work and personal life that barely make ends meet but are buying garbage on Amazon constantly is staggering. Prime days especially I was shaking my head at people bragging about the deals they got.
I don't even think you need to go to that. The vast majority of spending is discretionary. Is Jeff Bezos new yacht an essential? Deflation is particular bad for workers because it means less investment and lower salaries for those with a mortgage that's even worse. The people that benefit are those with huge stockpiles of cash.
This only really applies if it isn't just temporary though. It's also pretty for central banks to fix.
Huge stockpiles of cash seems a rather useful thing in all situations, to be fair.
Using the word "deflation" like it's a bad thing for citizens to be able to afford the things they need to live. That's capitalist propaganda for you. We're only happy when the blessedly wealthy get to have a good life.
So long as unemployment stays relatively stable, deflation might be a good thing for us. If unemployment rises significantly as a result of deflation, then the discounts we'd get might not be worth the lost income. Since employers control employment in the lack of unions, they hold the power to remove income from workers to offset the falling profits that result from deflation. I wouldn't mind extra deflation if I lived in a union country.
Youth unemployment is already really high in China. With deflation, you could expect unemployment to also rise in other age groups.
Deflation is a bad thing. It also doesn't necessarily mean things get more affordable for people.
It's a serious issue and is not good for the country or the people in the country.
In fact it's usual that the central banks main goal is to stop deflation. That's why central banks are usually separated from government policy also. Deflation is such a huge concern the central bank can overrule the wishes of the government and put in measures that will lead to a recession. Deflation is worse than recessions.
Economics is a lot more complicated than all the memes on this website of. Capitalism bad, communism good.
You don’t see how it’s a bad thing for people to have zero incentive to put money back into the economy? Everyone hoarding money and trying to spend as little as possible will surely have good results!
People still need things, just because their money is getting more valuable doesn't mean they're gonna skip this weeks groceries, the next haircut, car repairs, etc. This isn't a problem that's going to grind an economy to a halt, especially a command economy. The more worrying thing for China I'd imagine would be the total exports dropping which is also supposedly happening.
That grocer likely has loans which are now much more expensive in real terms. Same with the farmer who sells their goods to the grocer. The manufacturer of parts to repair cars also has them. With deflation, all of them bring in less money but have increased real costs. So they cut costs by paying workers less or more likely laying them off. It's good for banks though. They have loans out that now get amazing returns and can simply stop loaning money out because just having the money sit their provides a pretty good return.
It's a bad thing because the economy slows down and companies have less income, which means less pay for the workers.
Yer it wont trickle down!
Companies have been making record profits for years and wages have stagnated, which means less pay for workers.
But they won't because people are expecting prices to drop even more. Food and necessities, sure, it's kinda nice this month for that, but washing machines, a new TV? Better next month. And then the next. And then you don't have a job any more because you're working at a washing machine factory and nobody's buying them and the economy is going under.
Deflation being bad is one of those (rare) instances where mainstream economics actually is right. Of course inflation is bad, too, but there's a reason central banks tend to set targets just a percent or two into inflation: That's way better than risking deflation.
Unless China's mode of production changes very quickly, deflation will probably be a bad thing; in a capitalist system, labour is also a commodity not immune to deflating.
Unlike commodities though, labour tends to take exception to this happening.
I'm not reveling in China's issues, I just don't want to celebrate an imaginary win just because capitalism sucks.
Your employer also makes less which means a lay off or reduced pay. It's good for banks though since they make good returns on existing loans and do not have to lend it any new money to see good returns. Glad you want things to be good for bankers.
If the deflation is just a market correction after exaggerated inflation (retailers raising their prices more than general inflation to increase their short term subs) then it's no big deal. Prolonged deflation can be bad, as that causes too much saving and not enough spending, which can really hurt the economy and people because of how it takes money out of circulation.
In an economy, the more money can circulate, the more good it can do. I use my salary to pay for for and things, that money then pays the employees of the businesses I went to, and those employees also spent that money, and so on. At each step, both participants normally get a net benefit: I can eat, and the employee can also spend the money they get from me to eat, etc. As long as the money circulates, it keeps doing good. When it stops circulating, due to being put into savings, investments or real estate, it stops doing good (or it does less good). The cycle slows down or stops.
That's why a small amount of inflation (maybe 1-2% ? Not sure what's optimal) is actually healthy, because it puts pressure on people with money to spend it before it loses its value, instead of hoarding it.
This is the opinion of most macro economists today, but it's not universally accepted. Macro-economics is not nearly as scientific as micro-economics, and some people will say that its models are just about who can tell the most convincing story (or the story that's the most convenient for those in power)
There are some people who point out that things like electronics have been undergoing rapid deflation for decades and this has not caused people to stop purchasing them. The economy is a chaotic system and anyone who claims to be able to predict it's outcomes is selling something
My last two brain cells dying after seeing half of the comments saying that deflation is actually good.
To be fair... us common folk keep hearing stuff about the economy.. but the only outcome at the end of the day is we get screwed in higher prices, lower wages, fucked up climate for our kids. People get tired pretending this Economy isn't rigged by wall street and the U.S Govt or people close to it.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Chinese economy is expected to have slipped into deflation amid signs of a faltering post-pandemic recovery, according to market forecasters.
This means retailers who stocked up on goods expecting a surge in demand after pandemic restrictions were lifted are now under pressure to cut prices.
Homin Lee, senior macro strategist at Lombard Odier, predicted July’s CPI inflation report could show “outright deflation”, with prices slightly lower than a year ago.
In the UK, consumer prices were 7.9% higher than a year ago in June, as households suffered a long run of falling real incomes.
Trade data released on Tuesday showed that China’s imports and exports both fell more sharply than expected in July, adding to concerns over the world’s second-largest economy.
Jim Reid, strategist at Deutsche Bank, said the trade data highlighted that the Chinese economy is being “dragged lower by weakness in global demand and a domestic slowdown”.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
What's up with this weird jump in cpi? And what did China do Differently to us to not have high inflation?
Investing in productive forces and quality of life for all makes for robustly strong economic indicators and basically no inflation problem. Cutting rentierism and in large part private profits out of the economy greatly helps these figures as well, and cuts off inflation at its source.
They didn't pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the free market?
Do you think china's market is free? If so, the stated owned companies are the ones carrying the debt. Not sure how different that is to a state having the debt.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/29/china-economy-charts-show-how-much-debt-has-grown.html
And what about my other question. Where does this jump come from?