FACT BRIEF

Does every other major industrial nation have higher inflation than the U.S.?

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

By Lisa Freedland

Copy link

Copy featured image

Many countries with advanced economies have a lower inflation rate than the U.S.

Inflation is calculated by measuring the growth rate of the cost of a representative "basket of goods" known as a consumer price index. Using May 2021 as the base period, the U.S. inflation rate was 8.6% in May 2022.

The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development has May 2022 inflation data for 24 OECD countries. Of those, 14 had lower inflation rates than the U.S. while 10 had higher rates.

Pew reported that out of 44 advanced economies, the U.S. had the 19th highest change in its annual inflation rate between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.

PolitiFact noted that in making the statement, "In every other major industrial country in the world inflation is higher," Biden may have been trying to convey that inflation has risen in other countries too, and not just the U.S., rather than that inflation has risen more in other countries than in the U.S.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland What Is Inflation?

US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer prices up 8.6 percent over year ended May 2022 : The Economics Daily: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Consumer Price Indices (CPIs)

Pew Research In the U.S. and around the world, inflation is high and getting higher

PolitiFact Fact-checking Joe Biden on inflation rates among US’s economic peers

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.