For example, if somebody lends for a year at , and receives back at the end of the year, this represents a increase in her purchasing power if prices for the average goods and services that she buys are unchanged from what they were at the beginning of the year. However, if the prices of the food, clothing, housing, and other things that she wishes to purchase have increased over this period, she has, in fact, suffered a real loss of about in her purchasing power. (Notice that the approximation here is a bit rough; since 1.1/1.25 = 0.88 = 1 - 0.88 = .12, the actual loss of purchasing power is exactly .)