So that’s inflation!

How bad is inflation in China? According to businessweek 8.7% in Feb…is that good? bad? what does it really mean?

First off, some frame of reference - since Ben Bernanke has taken over, the Fed has come out explicitly to target an inflation rate of 2%…so by that measure 8.7% is extraordinarily high. In slightly more concrete terms, it means that if your salary in 2007 didn’t increase by 8.7% nominally…you ended up with a pay cut!

But before you go pouring all your investments into gold in fear of inflation, one must keep in mind that that China amidst all this inflation worries still grew at 11.4% in real GDP terms in 2007! Which means the country came out waaay ahead even after accounting for inflation.

A lot of this macro mumbo jumbo doesn’t really mean anything to me on a daily basis…well, that was until this past week. For some reason, it hit me all at once…

1) The milk tea I buy around the corner everyday cost 3 rmb, that is until last week. Now it’s 4 rmb
2) One of my perennial favorites noodles bowls went from 18 rmb to 22 rmb’s
3) Today I had to cough up 548 rmb’s for the same exact bike my friend purchased a month ago at 498 rmb,

Bummer, couple that with the US dollar getting weaker, it’s a double whammy for me.

UPDATE: After writing this post yesterday, I found out another one of my regular hangouts reprinted their entire menu just to raise their prices…

物价涨是个热门话题，不过物价涨幅８．７％实际上对我来说有什么影响？算多吗？还是少？

要判断之前还是要有一些对比。　首先，美国Fed Chair, Ben Bernanke, 宣布了涨物价要控制在2%以内，用这个为标准，8.7%的确超级高。　从另外个角度来看，这就是说明如果你２００７年的工资没涨8.7%，就算工资被砍了。

不过，不能光光顾这个物价的涨幅，还要考虑到中国２００７年度实际经济增长率是11.4%，就是说，扣掉物价涨幅后，经济发展还是很火热。

通常这些经济大道理对我来说没什么实际的生活影响，不过我这个礼拜终于感受到了。。。

１）天天买的奶茶本来是３元，突然涨到４元了
２）我最爱的鱼香肉丝面从１８元暴涨到２２元了
３）同一款的自行车，我帮我朋友上个月买了４９８元，今天我自己要买的时候已经涨到５４８元了

加上了美元汇率续跌，我亏死了！

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