>If a company isn't growing by at least the equivalent of inflation then it's shrinking That depends on what exactly is growing. As long as profits are growing

>If a company isn't growing by at least the equivalent of inflation then it's shrinking That depends on what exactly is growing. As long as profits are growing by more than 0%, then the company is growing, regardless of inflation. If its only revenues that are growing in the low single-digits, then still the company could be growing! Inflation is the phenomenon of prices generally increasing, but no matter what anybody tells you it is not distributed equally. Just because the overall rate of inflation is 5% does not mean that your costs have increased by 5% YoY.