So there is no deflation here on average, or even in the lower tail of the distribution. Rates of price increase are, however, pretty low around the world. The chart shows some characteristics of the set of inflation outcomes for a group of countries, 48 in all, classified by the IMF as advanced industrial countries or emerging market countries.
The annual figure disguises the fact however, that inflation reached a lower turning point of 5.5 per cent in April 1996, and has since then risen to a level of 9.4 per cent in December 1996 and also in January 1997. In the fourth quarter of last year, the quarter-to-quarter seasonally adjusted annualised rate of inflation was as high as 12.7 per cent.