Problem

Find the time it would take for the general level of prices in the economy to double at an average annual inflation rate of $6 \%$.
The doubling time is about years. (Round to the nearest year as needed.)

Answer

Expert–verified
Hide Steps
Answer

Final Answer: The time it would take for the general level of prices in the economy to double at an average annual inflation rate of 6% is approximately \(\boxed{12}\) years.

Steps

Step 1 :Given an average annual inflation rate of 6%, we need to find the time it would take for the general level of prices in the economy to double.

Step 2 :We can use the rule of 70 to estimate the doubling time. The rule of 70 states that to find the approximate number of years required to double a quantity growing exponentially at a constant rate, we divide 70 by the growth rate. In this case, the growth rate is the inflation rate of 6%.

Step 3 :Using the formula \(\frac{70}{\text{inflation rate}}\), we substitute the given inflation rate into the formula: \(\frac{70}{6}\).

Step 4 :This gives us a doubling time of approximately 11.666666666666666 years.

Step 5 :Rounding to the nearest year, we get 12 years.

Step 6 :Final Answer: The time it would take for the general level of prices in the economy to double at an average annual inflation rate of 6% is approximately \(\boxed{12}\) years.

link_gpt