Economists note a most salutary global trend: countries are increasingly adhering to zero-inflation monetary policies and trade restrictions are falling.

Consumer price index levels throughout much of the industrialized world are remarkably well-behaved, according to the statistics.

• During 1995, consumer prices in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries rose an average 7.3 percent.

• Among European Union nations, the figure was an average of only 3.1 percent.

• Among G-7 nations, the Western industrial powers, the rate for the period was just 2.2 percent.

Economists also note that as new trading blocks are formed and proliferate around the world, global free trade probably is not far down the road.

This would suggest, they say, that an economic shock in one country would be felt in all others. Given such a prospect, neighboring countries and economic markets will probably monitor and put pressure on errant countries to reform their systems before serious damage is done.

Source: Perspective: "Getting Global," Investor's Business Daily, July 14, 1997.