Alternative measures of price inflation and the perception of real income in Germany

Abstract

Abstract Since the 1980s inflationary pressures seem to materialise over-proportionately outside sectors of consumer goods and services. We combine the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices with indices for asset prices, such as stocks and real estate, as well as a proxy for the costs of public goods to develop alternative inflation measures in Germany since the introduction of the Euro. Real economic growth as well as median wage developments are reexamined in light of the alternative inflation estimates. Both turn out to be negative over the past decade in the most pessimistic scenarios.