I'm wondering what kind of investment vehicle or financial strategy you can possibly use to counter these kind of percentages reliably.
Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
51–60 of 349 posts
Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> That is completely normal, though.
If not using basics like food, fuel, and pricing on rent or mortgage - what are we basing the numbers off of? If it's the stable price of a Spotify subscription, rather than real goods needed to survive, something is horribly off.
Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
#53I 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…
Have salaries increased over recent years in line with the increase in money supply? I’ve certainly not seen this, but this is only anecdata.
At my (consumer) level, the only obvious effect I can think of has been cheaper interest rates for loans.
Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
#54Probably 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.
Inflation is only computed by some central statistics office. The state debt obligations are bound to inflation, so there's a conflict of interest here.
Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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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Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
#56I'm wondering what kind of investment vehicle or financial strategy you can possibly use to counter these kind of percentages reliably.
For EU the best seems like real estate in desirable areas.
Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
#57I 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 is a tricky concept and attempts to grasp it using purely monetary intuitions are liable to confuse. Inflation is a summary statistic that tries to compress the behaviour of many markets, in an economy where markets come into being and wither away, into one time series, and summary statistics of complex phenomena rarely behave simply.
Blair Fix has a nice essay that outlines some of the problems with the conception of inflation that lies behind the CPI: https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2021/11/24/the-truth-abo...
Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
What happens if you essentially waste all the money? Will you be left totally without pension or will others foot the bill?
Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
#59Earlier 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.
Here’s a post from last year that I thought did a great job of illustrating your point, and how misleading the reporting of a single inflation number is without also knowing the variance: https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2021/11/24/the-truth-abo...
Re: Estonia clocks fastest inflation in the Eurozone at 20.1 percent
#60Doesnt' every country calculate their inflation separately? Because living in Germany, that 7% is laughable. Nothing has risen by that little of an amount. Not food, rent, petrol, etc. Well, I do know of something that has risen to less than 7%: salaries.
Yeah I don't get that either. Here's the German Federal Statical Office in April(It's worse now). A lot of food markets have increased prices over 50%. Electricity just last year doubled in price. And a lot of these commodities are absolutely crucial for the German economy.
"Import prices in Germany increased 31.7% year-on-year in April of 2022, the new highest since the first oil crisis in 1974 and compared with a 31.2% increase in March and forecasts of 32%. Energy imports were 157.4% more expensive than in April 2021, namely natural gas (+301.2%) and crude oil (+77.5%). Excluding crude oil and mineral oil products, import prices increased by 27.6% compared with a year earlier. Other price increases were also recorded for fertilizers and nitrogen (+185.6%); aluminum (+78.4%); iron, steel and ferroalloys (+58%); plastics (+27.7%); machines (+7.9%); motor vehicles and parts (+5.7%); food (+20.7%); pharmaceuticals (+9.5%); green coffee (+68.6%) and cereals (+55.8%). Compared to the previous month, import prices rose 1.8%, lower than 5.7% in March. source: Federal Statistical Office"