With your typical MMORPG, players can usually farm the world for raw materials essentially forever. Monsters/mineral veins/etc are usually on some sort of respawn timer, so other than time there really isn't a good way to limit the amount of new currency entering the system.
That really only leaves money sinks to try to take money out of the system. What are some strategies to prevent inflation of the in-game currency?
Answer
Money sinks are I guess the only real answer. Which means items or currency getting lost forever.
Eve Online blatantly has this through the mass destruction of items and ships through pvp (only partially replaced by insurance). Eve also has many other money sinks such as office rent, station fuels, ammunition etc.
Other games have similar consumables, either necessities like ammo or items that provide buffs etc. (food, potions, pet food, poisons etc.)
Many games (such as World of Warcraft) feature Bind on Pickup and Bind on Equip items. They are actually money sinks. You can enchant and add gems to your items but at some point you will upgrade it. So upgrading actually destroys the old item along with any value added to it via enchanting etc. Or in some games you can 'recycle' it for less that the original value.
This is a nice sink because it doesn't negatively impact players. They only really notice it at the same time as they are cheering about their brand new shiny loot. Also, even if the item is never lost and just remains in a character's backpack it can be considered out of the economy because it will never pass to another player.
Which brings us to other utility money sinks like increased bank and inventory space.
Aesthetic upgrades are also a good way to introduce sinks without affecting the gameplay balance of your game. Things like clothing dye or vanity mounts and pets.
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