To answer this question, we can look at measures of expected inflation. Consensus Economics surveys hundreds of professional forecasters in numerous countries each April. The surveys allow us to examine forecasts of inflation around the world six to ten years ahead beginning in 1996.
The latest observation, in April 2006, for example, is the forecast of a given country’s average consumer price inflation rate from 2012 through 2016. For both a representative sample of industrial economies (Euro area, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom) and emerging-market economies (Brazil, China, Korea, and Mexico), we observe substantial declines from the late 1990s to today.