excuseflation

English

Etymology

Coined by journalists Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal in 2023 (see quotations below). Blend of excuse +‎ inflation.

Noun

excuseflation (uncountable)

1. (business, finance, economics, neologism) The raising of the price of a good or service in the wake of an economic, political, or other social change that serves as an excuse for the rise.
   • 2023 March 9, Tracy Alloway, Joe Weisenthal, “‘Excuseflation’ keeps prices and corporate profits high”, in Bloomberg‎^[1]:

     The key question is, in an economy where the consumer continues to spend freely, how sticky this “excuseflation” proves to be and how high the Federal Reserve will have to drive up interest rates to prompt businesses to lower prices, or at least stop raising them.

   • 2023 March 11, Cory Doctrow, “Excuseflation”, in Medium‎^[2]:

     The power of excuseflation is that it allows apologists to, well, make excuses. When egg prices shot up in January, Big Egg was able to blame it all on bird-flu.

   • 2023 March 18, B.D. Hobbs, ““Excuseflation” Is The New “Shrinkflation””, in KTRH Newsradio‎^[3]:

     It's called, ‘Excuse-flation’, because most of the big brands are using inflation as an excuse, to keep their prices high.

   • 2023 March 24, Daily Mail City, Finance Reporter, “INVESTING EXPLAINED: What you need to know about Excuseflation – a ploy by companies to hike prices, also known as greedflation”, in Mail Online‎^[4]:

     These may be entirely legitimate reasons to raise prices but the companies engaging in excuseflation are seen as exploiting the situation.

   • 2024 March 7, Enda Curran, “‘Shrinkflation’ and Other Terms for Inflationary Times”, in Bloomberg‎^[5]:

     Excuseflation
     The pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine both had material impacts on the availability of goods and services. […] Executives say they needed to pass along their own increased costs to protect their margins. Skeptics see excuses at play.

   • 2024 March 12, Isabella Weber, quotee, “Isabella Weber: ‘It’s time to lower rates’”, in CE Noticias Financieras, English edition, Miami, translation of El Pais by Ignacio Fariza, “Isabella Weber: ‘Es hora de bajar tipos’”:

     2020 was the first year that a lot of people saw shortage problems in supermarkets. In that situation we are also more likely to accept price increases. So yes, I think there is some excuseflation in that, in a context of shocks and emergencies, it changes the mindset of consumers.

Coordinate terms

• greedflation (often synonymous)

Related terms

• shrinkflation
• skimpflation