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Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

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Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

#41
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also last year there was a reform in the pension system. You can now choose to exit the pension system and have a large part of your fund liquidated. Around 14% of the population decided to use this and cash out their future pensions in 2021. Not sure how much of these funds got spent where but certainly it had some effect on the real-estate prices.

Why would they do that? Isn't that setting them up for a pension crisis in the future?

You can cash it out and manage your investment yourself. I interpret that small 14% as most of them doing so. Of course, I have no idea.

Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

#42

I am guessing the Baltic countries are hit hard by the Russia sanctions and the lack of cheap energy and food imports that has to come from somewhere else now.

Here in Lithuania we were already independent from Russian gas and oil (lesson learned over the decades), and had liquid natural gas terminal for a few years. But inflation is also very high.

Thing is even if you're not using Russian gas directly, prices are still going to be influenced by the global gas market (and the wider global economy in general).

Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

#43
post #33
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean to say that other European countries are lying? This proposition seems knee jerk. Inflation can be computed by anyone, so I don’t even understand how you could lie about it.

We have 9% inflation in the UK but the reality of the costs of things that you need to live a relatively simple life (food, heating oil, fuel costs), have all gone up way more than 9%. A shop that used to cost me £80 a week now cannot be had for under £110. So you can calculate them all you like and look at the data, but the reality in my life is that prices have risen way beyond the 9% we're told is the amount.

That is completely normal, though. Inflation is not the exact price adjustment of every basket of goods over time, that is simply not possible to represent in a single number - rather, it is some arbitrarily chosen basket of goods meant to represent an average household.

It does not have to be perfect to be meaningful.

Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

#44
post #25
post #3

Probably the only country that is being honest about its inflation amount then.

Do you mean to say that other European countries are lying? This proposition seems knee jerk. Inflation can be computed by anyone, so I don’t even understand how you could lie about it.

There is a lot of play room in computing inflation numbers. For example, there are assumptions based on which input variables are smoothed out to reduce noise.

Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

#46
post #5

Wow, 20 percent is close to hyperinflation.

You should at least know what hyperinflation is before you make statements.

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

#47
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats what eurozone means.

As a non-Euro I would have easily confused that with something like "Schengen Zone" or one of the many other political subdivisions of which European Union nations seem to flitter in or out of depending on the political winds. I'm thankful for the obvious comment.

You see the zone for the euro is the eurozone. The zone that was agreed upon in the city of Schengen is the Schengen Zone. Everything is ordered and organized in the European Union ;P

Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

#48
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also last year there was a reform in the pension system. You can now choose to exit the pension system and have a large part of your fund liquidated. Around 14% of the population decided to use this and cash out their future pensions in 2021. Not sure how much of these funds got spent where but certainly it had some effect on the real-estate prices.

Why would they do that? Isn't that setting them up for a pension crisis in the future?

Because people are shortsighted and want a new TV/car/apartment RIGHT NOW.

Also, there's a certain mistrust of the pension scheme and people think that the money in their pension accounts will be gone anyway by the time they reach the pension age.

Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

#49

I don't understand inflation. I understand that it's a measure of the price of things, but for me there should be two types of inflations 1. a dilution of money. Let say a central bank injects a lot of new money, then all prices will be higher, but salary will be higher too, and the overall effect is neutral 2. some prices increase due to change in supply or demand (e.g. gas or cereal), but salaries and everything el…

Inflation isn't meant to measure the change in consumer purchasing power.

There's CPI and PPI and other measures to measure how prices change to different groups.

If you want to measure the change in purchasing power just measure corporate revenues by sector to PPI by sector. Or CPI to HH or personal income.

Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent

#50
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean to say that other European countries are lying? This proposition seems knee jerk. Inflation can be computed by anyone, so I don’t even understand how you could lie about it.

> Inflation can be computed by anyone, so I don’t even understand how you could lie about it. Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics Choose carefully and cherry-pick how you source your input numbers, as garbage in means garbage out. Then let friendly media spokepersons help your PR quest by stating the numbers as if handed down by God himself. Then let peons on the internet call you conspiratorial. All in all, we shan't w…

Basic econometrics is now useless under the parole of “lies, damn lies”. Good stuff.

How about you propose a different metric then, that surely will be infallible and completely fair to everyone.

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