The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word INFLATION
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
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More clues leading to the result INFLATION
- Popular old means of decreasing, not right for an increase
- Problem for savers in getting apartment, one working
- Result of a blow to the economy?
- Rise in New York building, dropping right
- Dilapidated inn to fail in time of price increases
- Rising costs in Apartment No.1 overturned …
- Blowing up trendy New York building — that’s not right
- Cause of increase in damage?
- Result of a big blow to the economy?
- At home carelessly fail to note increase
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The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does INFLATION mean?
INFLATION noun- An act, instance of, or state of expansion or increase in size, especially by injection of a gas.
- An increase in the general level of prices or in the cost of living.
- A decline in the value of money.
- An increase in the quantity of money, leading to a devaluation of existing money.
- Undue expansion or increase, as of academic grades.
- An extremely rapid expansion of the universe, theorised to have occurred very shortly after the big bang.