Will inflation kill Poland? Only one thing saves us from a crisis like that of the 1930s.

A year ago, no one except economists paid attention to this. For most of us, she was like a yeti or a truthful politician - they may exist, but no one has ever met them.

At the beginning of last year, she was just entering the starting positions to start her marathon, the finish of which we may not see soon. It has been ubiquitous for months - we see it every day when we drive past a gas station or go to the grocery store to pick up our favorite cheese. Bakers’ hearts are racing. see it on gas bills. However, at the end of the summer holidays, she went too far and almost poisoned our beer.

What is inflation?

Inflation is the phenomenon of rising prices throughout the economy. A free market economy is characterized by volatility in the prices of consumer goods: some rise, others fall. We deal with inflation only when everything rises in price at the same time. It is calculated using complex economic models that consider the increase in prices for products purchased by households.

A moderate rise in prices is positive for the development of the economy. Low inflation can be understood, for example, as the inflation target that the Monetary Policy Council is currently pursuing, i.e. around 2.5 percent.

High inflation is the scourge of any government - many of them directly or indirectly collapsed because of it. This situation also took place in the Roman Empire, where the continuous reduction in the amount of silver in minted coins led to hyperinflation and, as a result, to the collapse of the thousand-year-old empire.

The effect of inflation is to reduce the purchasing power of money, which in practice means that currently in Poland we can buy 100 zł for the same amount of money by 17.2%. fewer goods than in September a year earlier.