So I came across this economics term, stagflation, for the first time today while listening to an episode on The Secret Sauce podcast. I thought it was interesting so I wanted to share this here.
Before we get into what the word means, let's start with some background.
Normally, when there is high unemployment rate (อัตราการว่างงานสูง) → people don't have money to spend (คนไม่มีเงินที่จะใช้จ่าย) → deflation (เงินฝืด)
To fix this, banks lower their interest rates so more people and businesses will take out loans. (ดอกเบี้ยในการกู้ต่ำลง เพื่อกระตุ้นคนใช้จ่าย)
When the economy is great (เศรษฐกิจดี) → lower unemployment rate and people have a lot of money to spend (อัตราการว่างงานลดลง และคนมีเงินใช้จ่ายเยอะ) → inflation (เงินเฟ้อ)
Banks increase their interest rates, so less people will take out loans. (เพิ่มดอกเบี้ย จะได้ไม่กู้ คนใช้จ่ายน้อยลง)
This goes with the Phillips curve, an economic concept developed by A. W. Phillips stating that inflation and unemployment have a stable and inverse relationship. (เงินเฟ้อกับอัตราการว่างงานแปรผกผันกัน)
That is the normal economic situation, in theory.
Stagflation, on the other hand, is when the GDP decreases (higher unemployment rate) but there is increasing inflation. (อัตราการว่างงานสูงแต่เงินเฟ้อ)
Why Is Stagflation Bad?
Stagflation is the opposite of what should be happening. With increasing unemployment, there should not be inflation. An increase in the unemployment level results in a decrease of consumers spending power and, if you tack on runaway inflation, that means that what money they have is losing value as time goes by. So, less money being worth less and less.
Disclaimer: I am not an economics expert nor have I studied it to a great extent. This is just my understanding of the word and the concepts related to it after reading up on several articles. If there is any mistake, please let me know. Thank you!