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Inflation in Geoplanetical usually refuses to come down because your independent central bank keeps defending a higher rate than you want. The fix is to pass the Central Bank Status law, take the bank under government control and raise the policy rate yourself.
Getting Inflation Under Control Through the Central Bank
Why Inflation Keeps Creeping Up
Most countries start with an independent central bank. It doesn’t aim for low inflation. It tries to hold whatever it sees as your normal rate, and at the start that’s simply the inflation you inherited.
The catch is that this target drifts. A spike pushes the bank’s idea of normal upward, and from then on it defends the higher number:
- Your country starts at 12% inflation.
- You cut some taxes to boost growth and inflation hits 13.5%.
- The bank now treats roughly 12.5% as normal and steers toward it.
- You can’t get back down to 12%.
Small swings get absorbed because the bank corrects them. Big ones get locked in, and inflation keeps getting worse.
What the Inflation Breakdown Is Telling You
Hover over inflation to see what’s driving it. Early on the causes are usually costs, taxes and shortages. As those fade, expected inflation and inflation already underway take their place. That’s why deep spending cuts often fail: the expectations stay even after the original cause is gone.
Step 1: Take Control of the Central Bank
Find the Central Bank Status law and pass it so the government runs the central bank. Parliament may vote it down. If it keeps blocking the law, one workaround is to first cut parliament back to advisory powers, then pass Central Bank Status.
Step 2: Set the Policy Rate Yourself
The rate sits in the Budget tab under Money & Finance > Currency & Central Bank. It has a much stronger and longer-lasting effect on inflation than any tax change.
- Raise the rate to bring inflation down.
- Lower it to push inflation up if you’re in deflation. A little inflation is healthy.
- A rate stuck in the middle tends to leave inflation stagnating.
Expect slower growth while the rate is high. Giving up some growth for stable prices is the whole point.
Step 3: Give It Time
Many economic figures are calculated over the last 12 months, so a rate change won’t show in the headline number right away. Watch the trend for a few months before moving the rate again.
Other Things That Help
- Float your currency: one player switched from a US dollar peg to a floating currency so their own central bank had more control, and used the sovereign wealth fund to build up reserve currency.
- Don’t slash spending to the bone: very deep cuts can push up unemployment and rarely touch expected inflation.
- Tax changes: they move inflation a little, but only briefly compared with the bank rate.
This May Change in Later Patches
All of this applies to the launch-week Early Access builds. The developer patches the economy often, and a future update may let you give the bank an inflation target of your own. If the bank starts behaving differently, check the latest patch notes.
More early-game advice: 10 Economy Tips for Beginners.