2022年经济学人 多国消费者价格指数上涨(1)

Finance & economics

财经板块

Consumer prices: public enemy

消费者价格：全民公敌

America was first, now inflation is starting to look entrenched¹ in other places.

美国首当其冲，如今通货膨胀也开始在其他地区深深扎根。

Inflation dominates the American popular psyche² to an extent not seen since the 1980s, when prices were last rising at the current pace.

自上世纪80年代，物价上一次以当前速度上涨以来，通货膨胀首次在美国人心中占据了前所未有的主导地位。

Much like complaining about the weather or last night’s basketball play-offs, moaning about higher prices has become a conversation starter.

正如同人们曾经抱怨天气或前一天晚上的篮球季后赛一样，现在物价上涨成为了人们挂在嘴边的日常话题。

According to figures published on May 11th, consumer prices rose by 8.3% in April, compared with the previous year.

根据5月11日公布的数据，与去年相比，美国四月份的消费者价格上涨了8.3%。

A day earlier, President Joe Biden called fighting inflation his “top domestic priority”.

一天前，美国总统拜登称抗击通胀是他“国内事务的首要任务”。

Newspapers are publishing four times as many stories mentioning inflation as they did a year ago; several polls suggest that Americans believe inflation is a bigger problem for their country than the war in Ukraine.

报纸上发表的文章，提到通货膨胀的频率是去年的四倍；几项民意调查显示，美国人认为通货膨胀是比乌克兰战争更大的问题。

But America is not alone. Inflation is also becoming baked into everyday life in other parts of the rich world.

但美国并不是独一份。在其他富裕国家，通货膨胀也已成为日常生活的一部分。

The Economist³ has gathered data on five indicators⁴ across ten big economies—”core” inflation, which excludes food and energy prices; the dispersion in inflation rates for the sub-components of the consumer-price index; labour costs; inflation expectations; and Google searches for inflation.

《经济学人》收集了十大经济体的五个指标的数据——不包括食品和能源价格的“核心”通货膨胀；消费者价格指数组成部分的通货膨胀率离散程度；劳动力成本；通胀预期；谷歌上通货膨胀的搜索量。

To gauge⁵ where inflation has become most pervasive⁶, we rank each country according to how it fares on each measure, and then combine these ranks to form an “inflation entrenchment” score.

为了衡量哪些国家的通胀最为普遍，我们根据每个国家在各项指标上的表现给它们排名，然后将这些排名结合起来，形成一个“通胀程度”得分。

Continental⁷ Europe, so far at least, seems to have escaped the worst of the scourge⁸. Inflation is leaving barely a trace on Japan.

至少到目前为止，欧洲大陆似乎避免了这场灾难的最坏影响。日本几乎没有通货膨胀的痕迹。

But it is entwining itself around Anglophone economies. Canada is faring slightly worse even than America. Britain has a big problem on its hands.

但通货膨胀与以英语为母语的经济体紧密交织。加拿大的情况甚至比美国还要差一点儿。英国面临着一个大问题。

A few factors explain the differences. Total fiscal⁹ stimulus¹⁰ across Anglophone countries in 2020-21 was about 40% more generous than in other rich places, according to our estimates.

有几个因素可以解释这种差异。根据我们的估计，在2020-2021年，英语国家的财政刺激总额比其他富裕国家要高出约40%。

It was also more focused on handouts¹¹ to households (such as stimulus cheques). That may have further stoked demand.

它也更注重对家庭的救济(如刺激支票)。这可能进一步刺激了需求。

Monetary¹² policy in the euro area and Japan was already ultra-loose before the pandemic, limiting the amount of extra stimulus central banks could provide.

在新冠疫情之前，欧元区和日本的货币政策已经超宽松，限制了央行可以提供的额外刺激的数量。

Britain’s inflation may also reflect an idiosyncratic factor: Brexit. It turns out that breaking with your largest trading partner causes costs to rise.

英国的通胀可能也反映了一个特殊因素：英国脱欧。事实证明，与最大的贸易伙伴决裂会导致成本上升。

1 entrenched   

adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯)

参考例句：

• Television seems to be firmly entrenched as the number one medium for national advertising.电视看来要在全国广告媒介中牢固地占据头等位置。
• If the enemy dares to attack us in these entrenched positions,we will make short work of them.如果敌人胆敢进攻我们固守的阵地，我们就消灭他们。

2 psyche   

n.精神；灵魂

参考例句：

• His exploration of the myth brings insight into the American psyche.他对这个神话的探讨揭示了美国人的心理。
• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche.她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

5 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

6 pervasive   

adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的

参考例句：

• It is the most pervasive compound on earth.它是地球上最普遍的化合物。
• The adverse health effects of car exhaust are pervasive and difficult to measure.汽车尾气对人类健康所构成的有害影响是普遍的，并且难以估算。

7 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

8 scourge   

n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏

参考例句：

• Smallpox was once the scourge of the world.天花曾是世界的大患。
• The new boss was the scourge of the inefficient.新老板来了以后，不称职的人就遭殃了。

9 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

10 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

11 handouts   

救济品( handout的名词复数 )； 施舍物； 印刷品； 讲义

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts. 士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Even after losing his job, he was too proud to accept handouts. 甚至在失去工作后，他仍然很骄傲，不愿接受施舍。

12 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。