Inflation Economic Growth and Unemployment

Inflation Economic Growth and Unemployment in Australia and the United States

Comparison And Contrast

The objective of this work is to compare and contrast the economic growth, unemployment and/or inflation of two or more countries to each other or to the United States. For this purpose this work has chosen to compare and contrast Australia and the United States and in terms of all these factors as mentioned above.

OVERVIEW of AUSTRALIA'S ECONOMY

It is reported in a April 22, 2008 report entitled: "Australian Inflation Accelerates 1.3%" that the Australian "consumer price index rose 1.3% in the first quarter form the previous three months, when it gained 0.9%..." Prices in the country are surging and the Australian dollar rising to "95.04 U.S. cents..." (Trading Economics, 2008) Reported is the fact that wages rising has fanned inflation and that the "jobless rate was 4.1% in March, close to the lowest in more than three decades." (Trading Economics, 2008) Australia's economy is described as "prosperous" and is characterized as being much like the "Western-style mixed economy." (Trading Economics, 2008) the economy in the country of Australia is one with a per capital GDP "slightly higher than those of the UK, Germany and France, in terms of the purchasing power parity." (Trading Economics, 2008) According to a report in on the Trading Economics: Global Markets Research Website: "Australia was ranked third in the United Nations 2006 Human Development Index and sixth in the Economist worldwide quality of life index 2005." (2008) it is stated that historically the lack of an "export-oriented manufacturing industry has been considered a key weakness of the Australia economy." (Trading Economics, 2008) However, since the prices have risen in the commodity exports market of Australia and tourism has increased, it is held that this is "less relevant" than it traditionally in the country of Australia. The Australian dollar is the "fifth most traded currency in world exchange markets (behind the U.S. dollar, the euro, the yen, and the Pound sterling) and account for around four to five percent of worldwide foreign exchange transactions. The following figure illustrates the history of the Australian dollar index for the period January 2005 through April 2008.

Australian Dollar Index (January 2005 - April 2008)

Source: Trading Economics (2008)

II. OVERVIEW of U.S. ECONOMY

The economy of the United States has a GDP that was more than $13 trillion and "...constitutes 22% of the gross world product." (2008) Additionally, the U.S. ranks as the third or eighth highest GDP per capita..." (Trading Economics, 2008) Trading Economics (2008) relates that U.S. workers tend to "work considerably more hours annually, take less vacation, and produce more than an hour than workers in other developed nations." It is reported that 155 million individuals were employed in 2005 with 80% being full time workers and more than 79% of workers being employed in the service sector." (Trading Economics, 2008) the U.S. dollar is stated to be a "weighted geometric mean of the dollar's value compared to the Euro (EUR), Japanese yen (JPY), Pound sterling (GBP), Canadian dollar (CAD), Swedish krona (SEK) and Swiss franc (CHF). The dollar has been surpassed by the euro since December 2006 "in terms of combined value of cash in circulation." (Trading Economics, 2008)the following figure illustrates the history of the U.S. dollar index for the period January 2005 through April 2008.

U.S. Dollar Index (January 2005 - April 2008)

Source: Trading Economics (2008)

III. UNEMPLOYMENT RATES & INFLATION RATES COMPARED and CONTRASTED

The "Debate on Alternatives for Monetary Policy in Australia" state that in the case of a "unique natural rate of unemployment...then following an inflation target will automatically cause monetary policy to expand when the rate of unemployment is high. This automatic expansion may be slow in coming and follow a significant period of time during which the rate of unemployment is high but eventually this automatic response would occur. This is because an unemployment rate in excess of the natural rate will create downward pressure on the rate of inflation. This downward pressure will cause the rate of inflation to fall. Eventually the rate of inflation and the forecast of future inflation under unchanged monetary policy will fall below the target range and this will require the Reserve Bank of Australia to expand monetary policy in order to meet the inflation target" (McDonald, nd) This work relates however, that it may very well be that this is not such a unique occurrence after all as it was found by Staiger, Stock and Watson (1997) that estimates (of the natural rate of unemployment) are imprecise in that "forecasts of inflation are similar whether the natural rate of unemployment is assumed to be 4.5, 5.5, or 6.5%." (McDonald, nd) the Phillips loops, "first documented by Phillips (1958) demonstrates that "changes in the rates of unemployment do appear to cause changes in the rate of inflation." (McDonald, nd) the unemployment rate in Australia beginning January 2006 through March 2008 is shown in the following chart labeled Figure 3.

Unemployment Rate in Australia (January 2006 - March 2008)

Source: Trading Economics (2008)

The inflation rate in the country of Australia for the period beginning March 2006 and ending March 2008 is shown in the following chart labeled Figure 4.

Australia Inflation Rate (March 2006 - March 2008)

Source: Trading Economics (2008)

One may observe from comparison of the unemployment rate and inflation rate during the specified period of time that as unemployment rates climb in Australia that inflation has climbed as well overall. The following figure labeled figure 5 shows the history of unemployment in the United States for the period beginning January 2006 and ending March 2008.

Unemployment Rate in the U.S. (January 2006 - March 2008)

Source: Trading Economics (2008)

The inflation rate in the United States for the period beginning March 2006 and ending March 2008 is shown in the following chart labeled Figure 6.

U.S. Inflation Rate (March 2006 - March 2008)

Source: Trading Economics (2008)

As one can easily see from the two figures above labeled Figure 5 and Figure 6 the inflation rate in the United States is higher overall in March 2008 than in the beginning of this period in February 2006 and unemployment rates having gone through many changes are furthermore higher at the end of this period than in the beginning of this period in February 2006. As the unemployment rates seesawed up and down in the United States the threat once having gained, momentum appears to have created a driver for rates of inflation that became sensitive to changes in the rates of unemployment historically.