BharatNotes Stagflation
noun (uncountable)Usage in a UPSC answer
India's 2022 encounter with elevated CPI inflation of 6.7% against slowing GDP growth of 7% (compared with the 8.7% post-COVID rebound of FY22) illustrated the stagflationary risk of imported cost-push pressures — global commodity price spikes triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict — intersecting with post-pandemic demand normalisation.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
stagflationary (adjective), stagnation (component noun), inflation (component noun), stagflate (informal verb, rare)
Root
Portmanteau of 'stagnation' (Latin stagnare = to be stagnant) + 'inflation' (Latin inflare = to puff up); coined by UK MP Iain Macleod in Parliament, 1965
Etymology
The word was coined by British Conservative MP Iain Macleod in a 1965 speech to the House of Commons in which he described the UK economy as experiencing both inflation and stagnation — 'a stagflation situation.' It gained global currency in the 1970s oil crises when supply-side shocks demonstrated that Keynesian demand management could not simultaneously address rising prices and rising unemployment, provoking a re-evaluation that led to monetarism and supply-side economics.
Memory Hook
STAG + FLATION: STAGnation (economy stuck like a stag in headlights) + inFLATION (prices rising). Picture a stag frozen in car headlights while the car (prices) hurtles toward it — neither moving nor deflating: trapped in the worst of both worlds.
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