Inflation
A sustained increase in the general level of prices for goods and services, usually expressed as an annual percentage change in a price index.
Inflation erodes purchasing power: the same paycheck buys less when prices rise faster than wages. Economists distinguish one-off shocks (a sudden jump in oil prices) from ongoing inflation driven by persistent excess demand, supply constraints, or embedded expectations.
Central banks in the postwar era were tasked with anchoring expectations; episodes from the 1970s to the 2020s show how trade-offs between employment and price stability remain politically charged.
Trade, labor, and state views
Import prices and global supply chains feed into domestic inflation; meanwhile, tight labor markets in some regions can push up wages and local service prices. State-level data will not replace national CPI, but it can illustrate which places are more exposed to traded goods and which lean on wage-sensitive sectors.