The article builds up a hierarchy of causes of inflation in modern economies. It is proved that all the inflation mechanisms have a single basis, that is, the nature of inflation does not depend on the specific socio-economic conditions as the nature of inflation is rooted in the social conflict about the distribution of the social income, which is the main driving force of inflation. The main mechanism of implementation of this conflict and generated inflationary potential is the monopoly in various forms, which becomes the auxiliary driving force of inflation. All the other reasons and factors of inflation traditionally considered in economic theory are only mechanisms for the implementation of those driving forces and can be reduced to them. Understanding the redistributive nature of inflation and inflation mechanisms is necessary on the one hand to build a consistent concept of inflation and its causes, on the other - to form the most appropriate approaches to the state's anti-inflationary policy.