stagflation

Definition

Prolonged high inflation accompanied by stagnant growth, often with recession and high unemployment.

Etymology

Blend of stagnation + inflation, generally thought to have been coined by the British politician Iain Macleod (1913–1970) in a 17 November 1965 parliamentary speech: see the quotation.

Example Sentences

• "We now have the worst of both worlds—not just inflation on the one side or stagnation on the other, but both of them together. We have a sort of "stagflation" situation and history in modern terms is indeed being made. There is another point behind the figures. As I say, production has fallen by 1 per cent. or ½ per cent."
• "As soon as we understand how involuntary unemployment can result from rational and well-informed individual behavior, it also becomes obvious how inflation and unemployment—which we once thought could not occur simultaneously—can be combined, as they have been in the recent stagflation."
• "Since no one had the solutions to stagflation, [Jimmy] Carter, a fiscal conservative from the beginning, was thrown back to his personal bias and chose to elevate inflation to the nation's most pressing problem. […] More radical solutions to stagflation, such as direct wage and price controls or voluntary wage freezes to halt the wage/price spiral, were not thought to be socially acceptable. So, in the end the administration acquiesced to monetary stringency and watched its tenure recede."