What are the countries with the highest inflation rates in the world? Inflation is one of the indicators of a country’s economic state, representing a percentage change in the general level of prices for goods and services paid by consumers (for consumer price index) and producers (for producer price index). A higher inflation rate means lower purchasing power. In normal conditions, the average inflation rate should not exceed 2% per year. Usually, the most economically and politically unstable countries are prone to higher inflation rates, and are among the top countries by the inflation rate.
Investors can try to protect themselves against higher inflation rates by investing in inflation protected vehicles. The most popular inflation protected ETFs among investors are iShares TIPS Bond ETF (NYSE:TIP), Schwab U.S. TIPS ETF (NYSE:SCHP), Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities Index Fund ETF Shares (NASDAQ:VTIP), and iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond ETF (NYSE:STIP). The problem with inflation protected bonds is that the yield is still tiny due to historically aggressive loose monetary policies all over the world. As a result of this yield investors have flocked into stable dividend stocks in recent years. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund ETF Shares (NYSE:VIG) returned more than 22% this year. Unfortunately, most dividend stocks are way overpriced now compared to historical averages as a result of this. We believe both bonds and dividend stocks are extremely risky investments right now. Investing in the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds is a better idea.
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At the moment the consensus view among Central bankers is that inflation isn’t a problem for most of the world. However, history tells us to expect the unexpected. Some of the cases of the highest inflation rate ever, or the worst hyperinflation in the world were recorded in Hungary during 1945-1946, with a monthly rate of 4.19 x 1016%, Zimbabwe in 2007-2008, with a monthly inflation rate of 7.96 x 1010%, and (former) Yugoslavia during the period 1992-1994 with a monthly inflation rate of 313,000,000%. Hyperinflation is considered to occur when monthly inflation exceeds 50% (or 12,875% per year). In today’s economy, the worst example of hyperinflation is Venezuela, which was among the top countries with the highest inflation in 2018. The data on the precise percentage differ, with Forbes reporting a rate of 80,000% per year in 2018, and CNN Business announcing a figure of 130,060% for 2018.
On the other side of the spectrum – countries with the lowest inflation rate in the world in 2018 were Burundi (with the lowest rate of –8.4% in October 2018) and Ecuador (around –1% in April 2018). However, these scenarios do not show good economic situation either, since they are indicators of deflation. During the deflation, prices drop, and money flow slows down rapidly, which reflects negatively on the economy.
We have gathered and compared the information on the highest inflation rate in the world in 2019 from several sources. These were International Monetary Fund, Inflation, Trading Economics, and decided to represent the most recent data ranging from March to July 2019.
We have done similar research on Countries with the Highest Inflation Rates in the World several years ago, but, of course, things have changed since then. So, let’s see what the situation looks like now. The countries with the highest inflation in 2019 are:
