Topic: Inflation & Supply Chain Issues-How bad is it going to get?! - page 3. (Read 394 times)

Officially, inflation is now 2.7%. But the official inflation calculation always seems like it's designed to keep numbers low, even though the price of almost anything I buy increases much faster.
People often say "taxation is theft", but I'd say inflation is the real theft because it's hidden. As a consumer, I'd be much better off without inflation. I love buying things with Bitcoin and seeing how products get cheaper over the years! Inflation is forced upon us by central banks and governments, probably to give the illusion of getting more money while in reality it makes it much more different to compare real prices (and wages) between generations.

How much do you pay for water if I may ask? Here I pay $0.0015 per liter drinking water (that's why we use drinking water to flush the toilet).

Looks like you have no idea how lucky you are! Here, Euro95 (the most common fuel with 10% ethanol) costs $9.22 per gallon. We almost hold the record, only Hongkong left to beat

Have you seen the Backlog of cargo ships at southern California ports? I'm not sure how recent this backlog is, but considering container transportation is now very scarce and very expensive, having 100 ships waiting to unload hundreds of thousands of containers means all those containers can't be used elsewhere:
It's ironic: containerships were created because standardised containers are very convenient and made shipping very cheap. That advantage is gone now.

I am noticing a drastic price increase on the food related products like meat, veggies, cooking oil in the recent days which are about 20 to 40% rise before covid 19 situation but government claims that there is no such increase and remain silent about people shouting at them for everything, I think the consequences will get worsen in the coming months and this how it will be from now on.

I am surprised that US is facing supply chain issues despite no lockdown being imposed in the country, this shows how fragile the US Economy is at it's core, even though I think these issues are just a one time event and will obviously heal them up in coming few months, they surely have impacted quite a lot of people. Honestly I don't blame government or systems for it, in such black swan events these things always happen, supply chains would still have been disrupted if there was no inflation, moreover 4-6% isn't that high in a developing country but as developed countries don't often face such high inflation it could be really hurting for sure.

You seem to know what you're talking about, I have a genuine question, though, how do things return to "normal"? How do we return to pre-inflation levels? For instance, fuel prices keep rising, so are most of our daily goods, how are these prices going to return to more humane levels? Is this thing a one off, which will last a few months before it dies down?

Here it's down to 4.5%, from a staggering 7.2% just a month before due to continuous printing of money and sudden lockdowns that contributed to goods being inflated. The price of basic necessities are still kept in check, although vegetables, fruits, and other such produce from farms kept on climbing all year round. Poultry products are also on the rise, too, and I don't think there will be a stop to this any time soon since the country is still on the works of reopening its economy for the nth time.

Imports are still steady, though the production of some of the local goods (such as sardines, chips, etc.) slowed down. I rarely see one of the local potato chips that I always buy whenever I go to the grocery, possibly because they still haven't resumed 100% of their operations.

It seems we are still in the very early stages of inflation and how bad it'll get depends on how long it perseveres. People in most countries will likely be able to tolerate a year or two of inflation without too devastating an impact - it will erode their salaries and push up the cost of living, so it closes the margin between income and outgoings. However the real challenge will be longer term, unless it is gotten under control it could cause central bank interest rates to rise which will cause a lot of trouble for home owners in 2-5 years time after the mortgages come up for renewal. If people are used to paying 2% it will be a big shock to see it rise up to 5-10% and will seriously curtail spending power, this has a knock on effect and ultimately leads to recessions.

The problem with this is most companies who produce cheaper/generic items are the same ones who make the name brand/full price items.  What really sucks is those generic items having increased in price too, where as they would normally feel like a sale.


Did you mean to say 4-6% DOES apply across the board? Because that is the rate of inflation across the board in the US.  The vast majority of items are seeing inflation.  Most basic items are seeing that 4-6% rise but specialty items are really getting hit hard.  For example my buddy who runs a boat building business said the epoxy he uses for boats has increased by I believe it was 35%.  My dog food went up $10 a bag which is like 20% increase.

Yeah I've seen the same thing with stores here. My local Mexican grocery store is now completely out of basic Tostito's chips. My local CVS looks like a barren wasteland.  I just saw on the news that most grocery stores are starting to see the effects of this and once again things like toilet paper are running low now.  This is all getting ugly ugly ugly!

Went to buy some Lipton tea (the large one, 1.5L), and let's just say that I bought something else. Prices have skyrocketed, even in soft drinks, that tea costed €2.39, which I find way too much. However, I've noticed plenty of goods having inflated prices. From soft drinks such as Cola, to chips and dairy and meat products. It's disturbing to say the least, daily grocery shopping has gone up a good 4%-5% I'd say, and this number is expected to rise.

According to TargetEconomics, Greece's annual inflation rate rose to 2.2% in September 2021, which is the highest since January of 2012.  Main upward pressure came from prices of transport (7.8 percent vs 6.7 percent in August); housing (4.7 percent vs 4.4 percent) and food & non-alcoholic beverages & tobacco (3.1 percent vs 3 percent). On a monthly basis, consumer prices inched up 2.1 percent.

Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/greece/inflation-cpi

Thanks for posting that statistic, because I wasn't sure what the US inflation rate is right now.  That doesn't seem to be that high, but compared to all those years when inflation was near zero, it's really damn high.  And yep, that 4-6% doesn't apply across the board for all goods and services. 

Just look at gas prices, which have gone from an average of $2.0x (or something like that) to well over $3/gallon today--and that's a massive hit on people's wallets, since most people drive.  The folks with the huge, gas-guzzling SUVs are taking the biggest hit, though I have little sympathy for them.

Oddly enough, I've noticed that regular Cheetos have been frequently out of stock in my area, though those awful hot ones are still on the shelves.  I've also seen cat food shelves near empty as of late.

As to your question of how bad it's going to get....I have no idea.  I assume the supply chain people are working on a fix and doing the best they can, though that's a pretty generous and optimistic assumption to make.  Let's say I'm hoping those things are true.

I think I focus more on my needs or goods/services I need everyday... As far as I tell, there isn't much increase in price except in the price of water which I immediately stopped using after inquiring whether the increase was justified. Fortunately, there is steady supply of natural water at home which could be boiled before drinking, even though it's clean physically.

I think if price of something increase so much, better to look for good and cheaper alternatives of same/similar size rather than adding to the demand. If lots of people do this, that could force the price to come down.

Right now things are starting to get a bit scary with not only how bad inflation has gotten, but also how bad supply chain issues are continuing to get.  The pandemic has caused a huge mess, and I'm curious how bad you guys see things getting and if it's as bad in your country as it is here in the United States.

First, how bad is inflation in your country..what % is it currently at?  (Here in the U.S. it's between 4-6% on average.  Many items have inflated much more such as seafood being around 20-30%)

Second, are you seeing supply chain issues in your country and how bad is it? (For example my favorite toilet paper has not been produced for well over a year now.  Recently my two favorite bags of chips have become unavailable from both supply chain issues and factories focusing on other items, putting them ahead of my FAVORITE damn chips lol).