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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

#101

Post by throwaway4good »

lekevicius wrote: post #34
throwaway4good wrote: post #27

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.

This article:

https://www.worldstopexports.com/lithuanias-top-import-partn...

Lists Russia as the largest trading partner for Lithuania. I guess that would be case for the other Baltic countries as well.

Killing off that trade would surely spike inflation.

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

#102

Post by panick21_ »

yodsanklai wrote: post #36

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 1 thing and it doesn't have 1 cause. There are many ways to measure inflation.

What you are suggesting, is exactly what economists and central bankers try to figure out. To adjust monetary policy correctly you need to differentiate these things.

Many of the policy recommend associated with inflation are really only associated with the first type of inflation. If its supply sides, then the recommended responses are totally different.

2008 is actually a good case, the central bank didn't react correctly because high oil prices were giving them false information.

> I must misunderstand something because I never see this distinction in the medias.

The media doesn't understand theses things either. And neither do the people listening to it.

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

#103

Post by ericmay »

rjzzleep wrote: post #89
jgilias wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. If you notice, the second and third place are taken by Lithuania and Latvia respectively. A lot of 'cheapness' in all kinds of sectors came from RUS/UKR/BEL somewhere upstream. Building materials being a prime example. So, a combined effect of energy prices, sanctions on RUS, a war raging in Ukraine. But then, as Estonian prime minister said recently - sure, gas is expensive, but freedom is priceless.

I'm sorry, but the Estonian prime minister is a Eurocrat idiot that lacks basic understanding of how either military or economy work or operate. You want to be independent of Hydrocarbons and Russian commodities? Okay well the Chinese model of silently building up the capabilities to do that is one way to approach the issue. France is an even better example of the idiocy of this as France had one of the most advanced…

> Okay well the Chinese model of silently building up the capabilities to do that is one way to approach the issue.

Sure, but you also can't help chaotic, random events taking place that make any potential plans to do that go up in smoke. The alternative in this specific issue (i.e. not standing up to Russia) is likely just further dependency on oil/natural gas from Russia and eventually just being outright colonized because you are so dependent that you can't resist. Dropping off even at a high cost protects Estonian sovereignty.

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

#104

Post by tauntz »

sharpneli wrote: post #58
pfortuny wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The pension system in Estonia has 3 tiers.

Everyone has the 1st, basic tier ("State pension"). Then there's the 2nd tier called the "Mandatory funded pension" which is the one that held the most savings and was "freed" now and then there's the 3rd one called "Supplementary funded pension" which has always been "free" as in you can stuff money in there and you can take it out as well.

People who blew their 2nd tier on a new car/TV/vacation/paying existing loans will still have the 1st tier but that will only guarantee a pension that's big enough that you won't directly starve but it's not big enough to actually let you live either.

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

#105

Post by gambiting »

toxik wrote: post #67
yuropeen wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

That is exactly what inflation is computed from. Like literally.

Then how can it be only 9%? My gas price has increased by 200% in the last few months. In August, my electricity is going up 400%. Petrol alone has gone up by about 50% compared to few months back.

Sure bread is still roughly the same as it was. But living costs have absolutely exploded recently, and far far beyond the 9% indicated.

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

#106

Post by tpm »

state_less wrote: post #68

Can anyone confirm mortgage rates in Estonia? This site[1] says ~ 2% mortgage rate, which means a -18% real rate, further pushing demand for real assets instead of paper debts. I think the US is closer to neutral, but we still have a negative mortgage real rate at the current inflation level. 1. https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Estonia/mortgage_interest_r...

Can't confirm Estonia but certainly looks credible for Slovakia (1.35% - mine is 0.9%). But beware those are variable rates, so not fixed over the whole mortgage timespan but like 1/3/5/10 years, with 10 years being unusual and also the highest rate. So a lot of people who took out mortgages with 0.6% fixed for 1 or 3 years will have a hard time as the rates will climb significantly soon.

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

#107

Post by throwaway4good »

rawbot wrote: post #35

Doesnt' 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.

The stated 7% loosely corresponds to what I am seeing.

Remember it is a broad statistic.

So even though you notice your kebab going from 5 to 6 euros, you may not notice that a new pair of glasses is the same price as it was last year.

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

#108

Post by panick21_ »

tejohnso wrote: post #93
toxik wrote: 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.

I thought it was pretty common knowledge that inflation numbers are deceptive and easily manipulated. It's [controversial]. It's the decline of purchasing power over time based on a basket of goods / services. So it all depends on how you fill that basket. [controversial]: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex....

That might work for some measures of inflation, but it doesn't work for the 'GDP Deflator' for example. That is a different way to measure inflation (and a more exact one) and it not so easy to fake.

And even if we go with CPI stuff, the agencies that do these things try to stay consistent. At least in western countries they don't just do whatever they want.

The idea that all departments of all western governments are secretly changing the data inputs to achieve some sort of grand conspiracy about inflation number is pretty much delusional thinking.

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

#109

Post by baybal2 »

vogre wrote: post #85
lekevicius wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's easy for small country like Lithuania, but completely impossible for country like Germany. There is not enough gas without Russian one to feed its industry.

No post body was provided.

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

#110

Post by Normille »

piva00 wrote: post #61
rawbot wrote: post #35

Doesnt' 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.

When I look at the Swedish numbers I feel the same and then I see that prices went down for "photography, audiovisual and computer equipment" and... Nothing else. Fuel is up 40+%, food by 8-10%, housing by 2%, electricity by 30+%. How the fuck do we end up with a normalised rate of inflation of 6-7%?? I do need to do proper research on the models because just using my common sense it doesn't make any fucking sense...

The graph looks really odd to me too. Even allowing for an uneven distribution of inflation rates, The 'Eurozone average' is way down near the bottom, suggesting most countries have above average inflation --which seems a bit like the old oxymoron "80% of motorists consider themselves to be above average drivers"
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