purchasing power

noun

1. Also called buying power. the ability to purchase goods and services.
2. the value of money in terms of what it can buy at a specified time compared to what it could buy at some period established as a base:

   the purchasing power of the dollar.

Word History and Origins

Origin of purchasing power¹

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

If you run the numbers a different way and measure purchasing power parity, Russia's economy is larger than Italy's.

From The Daily Beast

In the Keynesian model, higher taxes are inherently anti-inflationary because they reduce purchasing power.

From The Daily Beast

The purchasing power of holders of nominal debt must not be put at risk.

From The Daily Beast

Their overwhelming priority is to protect the purchasing power of incumbent creditors.

From The Daily Beast

This official Gulf purchasing power is important to Arab publishers.

From The Daily Beast

But it possessed a latent purchasing power such as probably no other Government in history ever had.

From Project Gutenberg

First, the unstable bank paper money defrauded the wage earner of a considerable portion of the purchasing power of his wages.

From Project Gutenberg

Europe is bankrupt, and peoples pockets rustle with paper money whose purchasing power dwindles as they walk about with it.

From Project Gutenberg

A Mexican gold dollar weighs about half as much as ours and has less purchasing power.

From Project Gutenberg

What we need is a gold dollar fixed in purchasing power and therefore variable in weight.

From Project Gutenberg