Canada’s inflation rate decelerated to 3.4 per cent in the year up to May, Statistics Canada said Tuesday, led by sharply lower gasoline prices. But beneath the headline slowdown in consumer prices, many facets of the cost of living are still increasing at an eye-watering pace. Grocery prices went up at an almost nine per cent pace.
A deflationary environment is very bad generally because it incentivizes people to not spend money which slows down the economy and hurts everyone.
The healthier thing to do is for wages to rise. Wages are currently rising but slower than inflation (2.9% yoy as of january), and that should make you mad.
True, but what if we’re talking artifical price hikes way beyond inflation? (Corporate-greed driven price hikes.)
I don’t know if lowering prices in that case would be considered deflatory. I mean, at least lowering them to what they should be according ot inflation doesn’t seem like it would create any deflationary problems.