Inflation seriously affects the standard of living of the population

Abstract

In this article the authors aim to highlight the negative effect that the consumer price index, or inflation, has on people’s incomes. In this context, the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics and Eurostat are used to highlight the fact that in 2022, from January until now, inflation has a galloping evolution, causing the reduction of the real incomes available to the population. Regardless of the index used, i.e. the consumer price index (CPI) or the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), the same thing is obvious. The reduction of economic activities, the impossibility of financing major investments and many others, have led to an alarming rate of inflation. This has a negative impact on the concrete results that the national economy is recording but, ultimately, on the incomes of the population, seriously affecting the standard of living. In the context of the pandemic crisis, correlated with the economic-financial crisis and deepened by and gradually the food crisis, the population feels this difficulty, there being great difficulties, which will spill over and amplify during the winter period. At the same time, the incomes of the population, especially the salary income, are stagnating. The increases are minuscule, and the real wage incomes are reduced from one period of time to the next. The same is true of pensioners, who are most affected by this multiple crisis that the national economy is experiencing. The methodology used is the logical one of comparing and interpreting correlated the evolution of inflation and the average gross and net wage in the economy. Also, the index method as well as the graphical or tabular representations are used, which highlight these aspects.

Keywords

• crises
• inflation
• salaries
• pensions
• indices
• economic evolution