VoxEU Column
Real-time food price inflation in Germany in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Unprecedented events, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have boosted the demand for real-time measures of consumer price inflation. This column demonstrates the usefulness of high-frequency retail scanner data to document the dynamics of both prices and quantities of German food products in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine. Immediate price and quantity responses can be detected and quantified and their subsequent dynamics can be tracked on a continuous base. Both prices and quantities rose for oil and flour due to stockpiling behavior by consumers, whereas only prices rose for other goods.
