Money & WorkHow it works
How statisticians turn thousands of prices into one inflation number.
Statistical offices record the prices of hundreds of goods and services every month, from bread to haircuts. Each product gets a weight based on how much households spend on it. The weighted average is the consumer price index; the EU-comparable version is the HICP, which the ECB uses as its benchmark. Your personal inflation differs depending on what you buy.
Useful: If rent and groceries dominate your spending, you often feel higher inflation than the official number.
Source: de.wikipedia.org