excuseflation

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

excuseflation (uncountable)

1. (business, finance, economics, neologism) Raising 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 and Joe Weisenthal, “‘Excuseflation’ keeps prices and corporate profits high”, in Bloomberg‎:

     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:

     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:

     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:

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

• greedflation
• shrinkflation
• skimpflation