In the first half of the 1980s, the annual inflation rate averaged 30 percent. After the United States imposed a trade embargo in 1985, Nicaragua's inflation rate rose dramatically. The 1985 annual rate of 220 percent tripled the following year and skyrocketed to more than 14,000 percent in 1988, the highest rate for any country in the Western Hemisphere in that year. An economic austerity plan introduced in late 1988 caused the 1989 figure to drop somewhat, but inflation jumped again in 1990 to more than 12,000 percent. President Chamorro's economic plan and the resumption of trade with the United States had a positive effect on the country's inflation. Despite the abandonment of many of the points of the economic plan, the annual inflation rate dropped to 400 percent in 1991, and was estimated to be only 10 percent in 1992.

Data as of December 1993