Rising gasoline prices push up US wholesale costs; inflation remains mild

While rising gas and diesel prices brought up the inflation rate for the country in general the rest of the goods used to measure it didn't help.  Those still rose at a fairly slow rate.  The inflation rate is still under 2% which is still under the Federal Reserve's target rate.  The "core prices" only raised 0.3% and according to the article part of that increase was due to a one time bump in tobacco prices.

This shows that while the economy is starting to rebound, it still has some progress be needs to be made before if can be called "recovered." This isn't the only measure but it is an important one that needs to come around to assist in getting things back to normal in the country.

India Wholesale Inflation Slips to Five-Month Low

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304049704579321762793169406

Prices of wholesale goods are looked at as a very important indicator of inflation for India.  The inflation on those goods is finally coming down.  That is a good sign for India's economy as they were in a state of stagflation for a which means that inflation was rising but the economy was plateauing.  The inflation rate is still much higher than the Reserve Bank of India would like to see.  The reserve bank would like to see less than 5%.  Many in India hope that the bank will take this as a good sign and not raise interest rates at this months meeting.

I belive that the Reserve Bank of India needs to look at its own actions in dealing with this.  Inflation should not continue to rise during a downturn.  That points to worse problems within the economy.

South Africa November Inflation Slows More Than Expected to 5.3%

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-11/south-africa-november-inflation-slows-more-than-expected-to-5-3-.html

South Africa's inflation rate fell more than was expected during the last month.   Their inflation rate is still somewhat high because they have been fighting the recessions affects since 2009.  They are still struggling and because of the issues they are very limited in what they can do.  They have been locked into the same interest rates since 2012 because of the weak rand compared to other currencies as well.

South Africa has many other problems.  They need to find a way to fix this soon or they will be in even more trouble.

Russian Inflation Jump to a Three Month High

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-05/russian-inflation-accelerates-more-than-forecast-to-3-month-high.html

Russia is having problems with inflation.  They have a target set of 5% a year but they will surpass that for the third straight month and all those have been in the 6% range.  This is causing their central bank to cancel some of their plans to try and help the economy by easing interest rates because that would make the inflation worse.  It is also throwing off their plans to attempt too help the economy with lower interest rates.

This is just another economic problem in post Soviet Russia.  They never really have recovered from the Soviets and are still struggling.  Much of that inflation is lead by food prices rising.  That makes it even worse of a problem.  That means that it is important daily goods that are leading the rise not other goods.

U.S. retail sales signal rise in demand; inflation tame

Retail sales are showing very positive growth.  They are signaling a continuing strength of growth in the economy at this time.  They are taking over for the housing market which is slacking off.  Another positive for growth is that inflation is remaining low enough that the U.S. Treasury can continue its bond buying stimulus.  That is good for the economy because that allows them to keep interest rates and other monetary controls at low levels to continue to assist growth.

It is a very good thing that the U.S. Treasury is able to keep assisting the economy.  The U.S. economy needs to get back on track so that it becomes less of an issue for everyone.  Having the U.S. economy back to normal would really help to get the rest of the world on track.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/20/us-retail-sales-idUSBRE9AJ0NX20131120

U.K. Disinflation No Risk as Swap Gap Widens to Record

The U.K. is once again benefitting form the fact that they decided not to begin to use the Euro.  It would appear that they will not be hurt by the fact that disinflation is harming the Euro Zone.  The Euro is still falling, however, the economy in the U.K. is going strong.  The inflation rate is rising at a little above their targeted 2%.  This has been the case since 2009. 

This is why the U.K. is so smart for deciding not to join the economic EU and not use the Euro.  They were the smartest country in Europe for avoiding that.  The Euro Zone is a bad idea because there is no central control that can make them do things that are necessary. 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-19/disinflation-no-risk-as-swap-gap-widens-to-record-u-k-credit.html

Canada Dollar Declines on Concern U.S. Adds to Economic Slowing

Canada's inflation rate is still low because of worry over the conditions of the U.S. government shutdown. The value of the Canadian dollar rose compared to the American dollar because of worry over the Federal Reserve's reaction.  They were worried that they would roll back the tapering of the bond buying program.  It also declined against most of the 16 other countries it is compared to.  The Canadian Central bank also was forced to maintain most of its policies because its inflation is too low for them to try and get things back to normal.

It think that Canada is alternately lucky and unlucky to be the U.S.'s northern neighbor.  They often have the bad luck of being hurt by economic downturn in the U.S.  They get the positives as well but they are very much tied to how well the U.S. is doing because the U.S. is their largest trading partner.
 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-19/canada-dollar-declines-on-concern-u-s-adds-to-economic-slowing.html