--- title: Inflation explained with a chocolate bar — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Inflation explained with a chocolate bar», a lesson of the money course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Inflation means prices in general going up over time, so the same pound buys a little less each year. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Money](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/) / Inflation explained with a chocolate bar # Inflation explained with a chocolate bar Lesson 34 of the money course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/0/) — Inflation means prices in general going up over time, so the same pound buys a little less each year. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/1/) — Picture Nan saying, "When I was your age, a chocolate bar was 5p!" and Kai holding one that costs 80p: that is 80p ÷ 5p = 16 times more, but wages went up over those years too, so people can still buy chocolate. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/2/) — When the news says inflation is 3%, it means things cost about 3p more for every pound than a year ago, on average; some prices jump more, some less, and a few, like TVs, even fall. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/3/) — If your pocket money stays £5 while sweets go from 50p to 55p, you get 9 sweets instead of 10; grown-ups feel the same when pay goes up £2 for every £100 but prices go up £5 for every £100. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/4/) — Experts argue about what causes prices to jump fast; to slow them down the central bank can make borrowing dearer, which helps savers but hurts families paying back a mortgage. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/5/) — Inflation is prices going up over time; the inflation rate is how much they rise in a year, as a percentage. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/7/) — A bar going from 50p to 55p rose by 5p, and 5p is one tenth of 50p, which is a big jump for one year. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/9/) — Purchasing power is what your money can buy: £5 buys 10 sweets at 50p but only 9 at 55p, with 5p left. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/10/) — A knock-on effect is when one change causes others: if lorry fuel goes up 20p a litre, a 100-litre trip costs 100 × 20p = £20 more, so food in the shops costs more. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/11/) — It was reported that prices rose very fast in many countries in 2022; economists disagree about the causes, and several things probably happened at once. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/12/) — Some people blame energy prices, some blame too much money being created, and some blame big companies raising prices; each view has supporters. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/13/) — Central banks raise interest rates to cool spending and slow inflation, but loans cost more: a mortgage can go from £600 to £700 a month, £100 more. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/14/) — Hyperinflation is extremely fast price rises: if prices doubled every month, a £1 loaf would be £2, £4, £8 and then £16 after 4 months. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/15/) — It was reported that hyperinflation happened in Germany about 100 years ago and in Zimbabwe more recently, making money nearly useless. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/34-inflation-explained-with-a-chocolate-bar/17/) — Real wages are pay compared with prices: if £100 of pay becomes £102 but £100 of shopping becomes £105, a worker is £3 short. - ← previous: [Adverts and how they work on you](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/33-adverts-and-how-they-work-on-you/) - next →: [Unemployment: when jobs are lost](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/35-unemployment-when-jobs-are-lost/) - ↑ back to [Money](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/)