Let me summarize the empirical evidence from work on U.S. inflation my colleagues and I have done at the Federal Reserve Board, as well as from our readings of other studies. In the United States, the increase in core import prices since the mid-1990s has averaged about 1-1/2 percentage points less per year than the increase in core consumer prices.
But I understand that it can also mean the deep part of the river, referring to the role of money as currency, as a current that flows through our economy and our lives.