Table 4: Consumer Price Inflation Average annual rate (over 1990s) ------------------------------------Spain 4.0 United Kingdom 3.5 Sweden 3.0 United States 2.9 Germany 2.5 Netherlands 2.4 Norway 2.4 Ireland 2.3 Australia 2.3 Switzerland 2.2 Belgium 2.1 Canada 2.1 Denmark 2.1 Finland 2.0 France 1.8 New Zealand 1.8 Japan 1.1 ------------------------------------Source: OECD  Can I turn now to inflation?
If we look at an international ranking of inflation rates over the past decade comparable to the one I showed for real GDP growth, Australia finishes in the middle of the field with an average inflation rate of 2.3% per annum (Table 4). This is a huge improvement on previous decades, but, of course, virtually every country has also shown a significant improvement.