There are a couple of competing inflation metrics one can use. The American Institute for Economic Research has the Everyday Price Index, which reconstructs the basket of goods used to calculate inflation.
I am of the opinion that the top level inflation metric has limited utility. Focusing too much on the top level obscures the distortions occurring within the basket of goods--the Price of gas is not rising at the same rate as the price of food.
However, monetary policy in particular makes heavy use of the top level inflation rate, and so for commentary purposes I use the top level number, because the question in my mind is how will the government respond? Viewed from that perspective, the rate to watch is official government inflation metric, not because it is empirically more accurate, but because it is the number the government will use to craft its response. This is true in Russia as well as the US.
Shadowstats and the EPI are useful when discussing how inflation creeps into an economy, and assessing the economic consequences of past government policies.
Not sure how Russia calculates inflation there but using the original formula US inflation is over 17% right now.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
There are a couple of competing inflation metrics one can use. The American Institute for Economic Research has the Everyday Price Index, which reconstructs the basket of goods used to calculate inflation.
https://www.aier.org/article/aiers-everyday-price-index-surges-3-0-percent-in-march/
I am of the opinion that the top level inflation metric has limited utility. Focusing too much on the top level obscures the distortions occurring within the basket of goods--the Price of gas is not rising at the same rate as the price of food.
https://allfactsmatter.substack.com/p/inflation-is-at-68-but-thats-not
However, monetary policy in particular makes heavy use of the top level inflation rate, and so for commentary purposes I use the top level number, because the question in my mind is how will the government respond? Viewed from that perspective, the rate to watch is official government inflation metric, not because it is empirically more accurate, but because it is the number the government will use to craft its response. This is true in Russia as well as the US.
Shadowstats and the EPI are useful when discussing how inflation creeps into an economy, and assessing the economic consequences of past government policies.