What is inflation according to the passage?

It is a matter of common observation that although money incomes keep going up over the years, we never seem to become much better off! Prices are rising continuously. This condition is termed as inflation; the money supply is becoming inflated so that each unit of it becomes less valuable. We are grown accustomed in recent years to higher and higher rates of inflation. What could be bought twenty years ago for $1 now costs well over $ 2. Present indications are that this rate of inflation is tending to rise rather than to fall. ff in the real world our money incomes go up at the same rate as prices one might think that inflation does not matter. But it does. When money is losing value, it lacks one of the qualities of a good money-stability of value. It is no longer acceptable as a store of value, and it is wasting assets so people try to get rid of money as quickly as possible. Inflation therefore stimulates the consumer spending, and deters saving.