For something broader like "consumer price index" kinds of things, the answer is that it only rarely goes down. Governments are deathly afraid of "deflation", e

For something broader like "consumer price index" kinds of things, the answer is that it only rarely goes down. Governments are deathly afraid of "deflation", even short term deflation. The rationale is that if consumers and producers think prices are going down (perhaps because the economy is slowing down), they are incentivized to delay purchases - causing the economy to slow down more and all the way to a crash and unemployement which causes the population to be very unhappy. Second, governments love to make themselves look good to their constituents by handing out money or buying stuff we can't afford (plenty of it useless), and (not) paying for it through currency inflation (that is, creating money). Few people believe that deflation would be useful. Any threat of deflation is grounds for governments to step in and try to return to a slight inflation target. For the "producer price index" - prices manufacturers pay - these indexes do come down often and sharply and temporarily - amid a clear uptrend. I guess these markets are more agile and buyers at businesses are actively paid to look for and engineer less expensive solutions.