Infographic: The Countries With the Highest Inflation Rates (2024)

FAQs

What countries have the highest inflation rates? ›

The countries with the highest interest rates are similar to those with the highest inflation rates. The current highest inflation rates by country are Venezuela (56%), Zimbabwe (130%), Argentina (100%) and Sudan (28%).

UK set for weak growth and highest inflation in G7, OECD says. Reuters.

Hyperinflation is a rapid, massive, and unmanageable increase in prices. In Hungary, just after World War II, prices doubled every 15 hours. More recently, in Zimbabwe, prices doubled every day. In the troubled Yugoslavia of the 1990s, inflation hit 50% a year.

Yet Prime Minister Trudeau insists his government has “a responsible fiscal track,” again claiming that Canada has the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio among G7 countries (Germany, Italy, Japan, France, the United Kingdom and the United States).

In fact, most of the rise in inflation in 2021 and 2022 was driven by developments that directly raised prices rather than wages, including sharp increases in global commodity prices and sectoral price spikes driven by a combination of pandemic-induced kinks in supply chains and a huge shift in demand during the ...

What was the worst inflation in history? ›

Between the end of 1945 and July 1946, Hungary went through the highest inflation ever recorded. In 1944, the highest banknote value was 1,000 P. By the end of 1945, it was 10,000,000 P, and the highest value in mid-1946 was 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 P (10²⁰ pengő).

Key Takeaways

Inflation in the U.S. is measured by the consumer price index (CPI) calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The highest year-over-year inflation rate observed in the U.S. since its founding was 29.78% in 1778. Since the CPI was introduced, the highest inflation rate observed was 20.49% in 1917.

The United States is the undisputed heavyweight when it comes to the economies of the world. America's gross domestic product in 2022 was more than 40% greater than that of China, the world No. 2. Even more striking, U.S. GDP was over five times that of the next two largest economies, Japan and Germany.

Canada Inflation Rate is at 2.90%, compared to 2.78% last month and 4.30% last year. This is lower than the long term average of 3.15%.

Is Inflation Good Or Bad? Inflation is measured by the consumer price index (CPI), and at low rates, it keeps the economy healthy. But when the rate of inflation rises rapidly, it can result in lower purchasing power, higher interest rates, slower economic growth and other negative economic effects.

Inflation in Europe looked worse than in the U.S. as the two regions were on different inflationary cycles. As illustrated in the chart below, U.S. inflation peaked before European counterparts and further, the peak was lower.

US Inflation Rate is at 3.48%, compared to 3.15% last month and 4.98% last year. This is higher than the long term average of 3.28%. The US Inflation Rate is the percentage in which a chosen basket of goods and services purchased in the US increases in price over a year.