What Is Deflation and How Does it Affect Investments?

What Is Deflation and How Does it Affect Investments explained by professional forex trading experts the “ForexSQ” FX trading team.

What Is Deflation and How Does it Affect Investments

Deflation is commonly defined as a decrease in the general prices of goods and services within a given economy. Unlike disinflation, or a slowdown in the rate of inflation, deflation occurs when the rate of inflation actually falls below zero percent, indicating a negative rate of inflation. The result of deflation is an increase in the real value of money relative to goods and services.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at deflation, the impact that it has on an economy, and some potential solutions for combatting it.

Quantifying the Rate of Deflation

Inflation and deflation are both measured using a Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the prices of a selection of goods and services purchased by a “typical consumer” over time. The rate of deflation can be calculated by taking the difference between two time periods, dividing it by the earlier period, and multiplying that number of 100 to get a percentage.

As with inflation, measures of deflation can be manipulated by making changes to the components of a Consumer Price Index. For instance, a commodity rapidly falling in price could be artificially excluded from the CPI calculation, even if it’s something that consumers must purchase as a part of everyday life. These changes can make it difficult to determine true deflation in some countries.

Causes of and Solutions to Deflation

Deflation is commonly caused by a fall in aggregate demand (or increase in supply of) goods and services and/or a lack of money supply.

When prices react by falling even lower, consumers tend to curb their spending until prices bottom. Unfortunately, this leads to less production at factories, less investment and a so-called deflationary spiral.

An example of this occurring is the U.S. Great Depression, where the demand for goods fell at the same time saving increased and the money supply was reduced.

While such saving would seem positive, deflation can lead to a transfer of wealth away from borrowers (which most people are) and can cause inefficient investment due to confusing pricing signals.

Deflation can be counteracted in a number of different ways, but the methods remain debatable among various economic camps. At its heart, injecting more capital into an economy will generally reverse deflation, since it addresses the only controllable part of the equation. This can be done in many ways, including most recently the so-called quantitative easing approach.

The effectiveness of these approaches is debatable, especially following the U.S. 2008 financial crisis and E.U. 2009 sovereign debt crisis.

Effects of Deflation on Stocks and Bonds

Deflation is generally considered to have a negative impact on stocks, since lower prices over a long timeframe tend to hurt bottom-line corporate net income. Moreover, deflation can encourage consumers to save money and reduce their spending, which has a negative impact on top-line revenues, and thereby erode shareholder value.

While deflation is bad for stocks, it can have a positive impact on bonds. Government debt, such as U.S. Treasury Bonds, is worth more because fixed payments becoming increasingly valuable.

Interest rates tend to decrease during a deflationary environment, which leads bond prices to increase and bondholders to profit during these times.

That said, deflation is not necessarily positive for corporate bonds, especially those in companies that aren’t large blue chip stocks. Deflation makes debt payments more difficult each year, since they become more expensive. This puts companies at risk if they are eventually unable to pay their debts given the lower revenues and profits seen from falling prices.

Key Takeaway Points

Deflation is commonly defined as a decrease in the general prices of goods and services within a given economy.
Deflation is commonly caused by a fall in aggregate demand (or increase in supply of) goods and services and/or a lack of money supply.
Deflation generally causes stocks to decline, government bonds to increase and corporate bonds to potentially decrease.