A historical and international perspective: a low-inflation country It has been noted that, notwithstanding the Great Inflation episode, and the temporary inflationary outbursts corresponding to the two world wars, the United States should correctly be characterised, when seen from a very long-run perspective, as a low-inflation country.
This is a claim made, in particular, by Bradford DeLong in his analysis of the US inflationary experience since the time of the Civil War. 1 Historical experience suggests that Switzerland deserves such a characterisation to a significantly greater extent. First, since 1880 Swiss annual inflation has been, on average, just 2.2%, to be compared to 2.6% in the US.