Well the amount of steem available on the free market ie. steem that can be bought drives the price down. The same effect as quantitive easing has on the normal currency markets.
Steem that is powered up is not part of the amount of coins openly available on the market until they are powered down.
So in terms of that I would say inflation is variable dependent also on the amount of power downs that are happening.
It does depend onhpwhat your definition is of inflation so let me know if I see this wrong! 👍
OK, I see how you are thinking about it now. Makes sense