About Inflation Tomorrow

Inflation Tomorrow shows how inflation -the increase in prices over time- affects the purchasing power of money. Purchasing power refers to the amount of goods and services a certain amount of money can buy.

The calculator compares the purchasing power of money today with its estimated purchasing power in the future. For example, if it says “100 US dollars today is worth 88.79 dollars in 5 years,” this means that, due to rising prices, 100 dollars in five years is expected to buy what 88.79 dollars can buy today. To explore different scenarios, you can adjust the underlined values in the calculator.

The estimates are based on data from the International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook (WEO). Specifically, the calculator uses forecasts of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures changes in the prices of consumer goods and services such as food, clothing, housing, transport, recreation, and education.

The IMF publishes CPI forecasts for the current year and up to five years into the future. To estimate the effect of inflation on purchasing power, the calculator uses the arithmetic mean of the annual CPI forecasts for the coming five years (including the current year).

Data is provided at the currency level. When a currency is used across multiple countries or regions, the calculator uses CPI forecasts for the country or monetary area that issues the currency. For example, for the US dollar, forecasts for the United States are used. Inflation can nevertheless still vary within such a currency area. For example, inflation rates differ between eurozone countries, while the calculator uses IMF CPI forecasts for the eurozone as a whole. No IMF forecast was available for the Sri Lankan rupee. Therefore, the most recent available inflation data was used instead.

Disclaimer: As described, the calculations are based on publicly available IMF CPI forecasts and are intended for informational purposes only. They do not constitute financial, investment, or economic advice. Actual inflation rates and future purchasing power may differ substantially from the estimates shown.

Source: International Monetary Fund. World Economic Outlook (WEO), https://data.imf.org/en/datasets/IMF.RES:WEO.