Price increase and inflation are often assumed to be the same thing, but they aren't. It is almost impossible to cause actual monetary inflation with a sovereign fiat currency, which is what we have.
That doesn't mean that prices can't go up as supply chains break down and goods become scarcer. It simply means that it isn't the fault of the money supply when that happens. If you have 99 buyers of widgets and 100 widgets to offer the price will remain relatively stable assuming no monopolies or patent manipulation distorts the widget market.
However, if you only have 98 widgets and the same 99 customers, the price will be bid up to whatever level can be leveraged for the product and one customer will have to do without. This will happen, as will the reverse when supplies of widgets increase or customer demand drops, regardless of the total amount of money available.
The US dollar will always be worth a dollar and only the scarcity of available products or drastic increases in production cost will drive up prices in a free market economy.
A wheat shortage might cause the price of bread to rise as long as the shortage exists, but giving people money to buy bread won't raise the price of products not containing wheat. If the shortage is caused by structural production problems the increased price, and profit, will also entice more producers and their investors, causing deflationary pressure as well.
Resource driven inflation is not avoidable, and cutting the peoples' ability to purchase needed resources is cruel and misguided. A sovereign issuer of a fiat currency can always subsidize industries directly to avoid consumer price rises if such an agreement can be made instead of watching supply chains disintegrate. Or, the consumers can be subsidized directly if the issuer wishes to impart some social equity into the aid by setting income limitations.
The worst thing such a currency issuer can do when facing supply problems is to cut help to those who need it. This creates a tug of war between inflationary price and deflationary demand issues. It is usually best to bite the bullet and accept higher prices when they are unavoidable as long as consumers can buy the higher priced goods, with increased aid if necessary.
