Today the U.S. government announced that the inflation rate was 2.7% for 2009. That does not tell you that from March to October, we were in a period of deflation. The main cause of that deflation was lower energy prices, when compared with the same month in 2008. Now that energy prices stabilised and then risen somewhat, we are able to say that inflation has returned. However, inflation has only returned if you ignore the fall in the prices for houses, which is off 30% from peak. The Bureau of Labor Statistics conveniently ignores this, and instead uses Owners Equivalent Rent, which has declined only 1% from peak.

BillShrink has posted another infographic showing the countries with the highest global inflation rates. The data is somewhat out-of-date, and is somewhat speculative. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world at 12,563%, but that is wrong. Up until Zimbabwe abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar, the inflation rate was in the millions of percents.

via BillShrink : The Highest Global Inflation Rates