Inflation Worries: An Anxiety In Consuming

While over the past two years, it would have been nigh-on-impossible to go a full 24 hours without mentioning the word covid, it appears other words, such as inflation and gas prices have now replaced the dreaded coronavirus and made their way into the everyday lexicon. 

In our research of the people’s recent consumption preference, it revealed that due to the inflation, a rise of 29% appeared in consumers - they tend to buy things they don’t currently need just to lock the lower price in case the possible subsequent price increases.

The research revealed that when inflation surged to 8.5% in March this year (a jump of 0.6%), there was a simultaneous 29.5% spike in online searches for gold stocks from worried investors.

View the following infographic illustrating these results by state:

The numbers in the top and bottom columns of the table vary a lot. The number of people who increase by almost a half (rated by 45.3%) in Maine show their concerns about the gold rush, while the least concerned states, like Oregon, increase by only 9.9% in online searches for the gold rush, where people show least concern among the US. The differences in the characteristics of each state are pretty obvious here.

Gold is a physical and real asset, which is why it is often considered an alternative currency. However, experts have warned that gold’s record in protecting investors from inflation is spotty and that there is no guarantee that gold will generate above-average returns during periods of high inflation.

References

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Consumer prices up 8.5 percent for year ended March 2022".

2. Lacurci Greg, "Gold as an inflation hedge? History suggests otherwise".