Perhaps the physical limitations of accumulating goods and moving them in an ever more crowded geographical environment resulted in cost pressures to economize on size and space. Similarly, perhaps it was the prospect of increasing costs of processing ever larger quantities of physical resources that shifted producers toward downsized alternatives.
During the last twelve months, they have remained mostly unchanged, little affected by last year's rise or the recent rapid decline in the inflation rate. If the inflation rate remains negative for a protracted period, however, there is a risk of a gradual decline in medium- to long-term inflation expectations.