The consumer price index (CPI) plays a critical role in measuring inflation. Recent inflation trends, however, have raised questions about its accuracy. This paper evaluates several of these critiques, including that the CPI fails to keep up with rapid changes in consumer expenditure patterns;...

This study examines the effectiveness of using webscraped data to predict price developments in the Austrian food retail sector. We calculate monthly nowcasts of price changes based on daily price data collected by the OeNB since mid-2020, using Eurostat methodology for price index calculation,...

This paper introduces a novel approach to decomposing consumer price inflation. Expanding upon the established decomposition method for the value-added deflator, our methodology combines the cost structure of the consumption expenditures from the input-output table with quarterly national...

This paper studies the effects of country-specific energy prices on food consumer price inflation (CPI) within a cross-country Phillips curve framework. It considers a panel of 36 OECD member and candidate economies using quarterly data from the start of 1994 to the end of 2021. We find that...

We employ Synthetic Control Method techniques to estimate the causal effect of Brexit on the consumer price index (CPI) in the United Kingdom. We construct a counterfactual CPI index from a weighted pool of comparable economies and find that the price level of the United Kingdom rose...

The rise in inflation in recent years triggered a cost-of-living crisis, in which households' ability to afford basic necessities declined. The cost-of-living crisis disproportionately affected lower income households, with the proportion in material deprivation (i.e. unable to afford basic...

Inflation has recently become a significant obstacle to the Ethiopian government's efforts to achieve economic progress. Consequently, there is an increasing need to identify the sources of inflation in the country. This study, therefore, analyzed the drivers of inflation in Ethiopia using...

This paper examines key driving forces of inflationary pressures, taking into account supply and demand side determinants and actions of policy makers, during the pandemic and geopolitical crises in the Eurozone. Using heterogeneous nonstationary macro-panel models, especially the Mean Group...

The South African meat industry plays an important role in food provision, income generation, and economic stability. However, inflation-driven volatility in commodity markets has intensified the focus on the nexus between producer and consumer price indexes, as significant meat price changes...

This paper proposes a new method for estimating a full-coverage spatial price index using data typically available in household budget surveys. The food component of the index is estimated at the household level using reported expenditures and quantities, while the nonfood component is derived...

We document that about 33% of the core inflation basket in the euro area is sensitive to monetary policy shocks. We assess potential theoretical mechanisms driving the sensitivity. Our results suggest that items of a discretionary nature, as reflected in a higher share in the consumption baskets...

Housing rents are one of the most important and difficult elements of spatial cost of living comparisons. Difficulties arise from the lack of sufficiently detailed and harmonized data, especially at the international level. The emergence of Airbnb has created a valuable new source of...

This study utilised longitudinal data from Black History Month events in London from 2021 to 2023. Novel findings revealed that increased inflation and Bank Rates, related to the cost-of-living crisis, were associated with greater discrimination and deteriorations in both general and mental...

We use the microdata underlying the Ethiopian CPI to examine the spatial dispersion in local prices and availability of 401 items across 106 cities. Remote cities face higher prices and have access to fewer products. Large cities also face higher individual prices but enjoy access to a wider set...

This paper examines the impact of current account balances on energy, headline, and core inflation across developed and developing economies from 1980 to 2023. Using Panel OLS fixed effects, Panel-IV 2SLS and Panel Vector Autoregressive models, we find that an improvement in the current account...