One-Stop Source : A Global Database of Inflation
This paper introduces a global database that contains inflation series: (i) for a wide range of inflation measures (headline, food, energy, and core consumer price inflation; producer price inflation; and gross domestic product deflator changes); (...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/287091627411399489/One-Stop-Source-A-Global-Database-of-Inflation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36037 |
| Summary: | This paper introduces a global database
that contains inflation series: (i) for a wide range of
inflation measures (headline, food, energy, and core
consumer price inflation; producer price inflation; and
gross domestic product deflator changes); (ii) at multiple
frequencies (monthly, quarterly and annual) for an extended
period (1970–2021); and (iii) for a large number (up to 196)
of countries. As it doubles the number of observations over
the next-largest publicly available sources, the database
constitutes a comprehensive, single source for inflation
series. The paper illustrates the potential use of the
database with three applications. First, it studies the
evolution of inflation since 1970 and document the
broad-based disinflation around the world over the past
half-century, with global consumer price inflation down from
a peak of roughly 17 percent in 1974 to 2.5 percent in 2020.
Second, it examines the behavior of inflation during global
recessions. Global inflation fell sharply (on average by 0.9
percentage points) in the year to the trough of global
recessions and continued to decline even as recoveries got
underway. In 2020, inflation declined less, and more
briefly, than in any of the previous four global recessions
over the past 50 years. Third, the paper analyzes the role
of common factors in explaining movements in different
measures of inflation. While, across all inflation measures,
inflation synchronization has risen since the early 2000s,
it has been much higher for inflation measures that involve
a larger share of tradable goods. |
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