Business and government leaders consider the inflation rate to be an important indicator. Inflation is a period of increased (B1) that causes rapid rises in prices. When your money buys fewer goods so that you get (B2) for the same amount of money as before, inflation is the problem. There is a general rise (B3) the price of goods and services. Your money buys less. Sometimes people (B4) inflation as a time when "a dollar is not worth a dollar any more."
Inflation is a problem for all consumers. People who live on a (B5) income are hurt the. (B6) Retired people, for instance, cannot (B7) on an increase in income as prices rise. Elderly people face serious problems in (B8) their incomes to meet their needs in (B9) of inflation. Retirement income (B10) any fixed income usually does not rise as fast as prices. Many retired people must cut their spending to (B11) up with rising prices. In many cases they must stop buying some necessary items, such as food and clothing. (B12) for working people whose incomes are going up, inflation can be a problem. The (B13) of living goes up, too. People who work must have even more money to keep up their standard of living. Just buying the things they need costs more. When incomes do not keep (B14) with rising prices, the standard of living goes down. People may be earning the same amount of money, but they are not living as well (B15) they are not able to buy as many goods and services.
Government units gather information about prices in our economy and publish it as price indexes (B16) which the rate of change can be determined. A price index measures changes in prices using the price for a (B17) year as the base. The base price as set (B18) 100, and the other prices are reported as a (B19) of the base price. A price index makes (B20) possible to compare current prices of typical consumer goods, for example, with prices of the same goods in previous years.