The headline inflation rate is subject to unpredictable, temporary, sector-specific shocks. Therefore, various measures of core inflation have been proposed to isolate the underlying or permanent inflation component. In this paper, a number of criteria are used to evaluate several statistical measures, and the performance of these measures is analysed for the euro area and the Netherlands. It turns out that none of the measures meets all the criteria. Core inflation measures can however serve very well as an analytical tool. A survey of inflation measures in use at central banks in the OECD area confirms that core inflation measures mostly serve as analytical tool only.
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Paper provided by Netherlands Central Bank, Monetary and Economic Policy Department in its series MEB Series (discontinued) with number
2003-19.
Find related papers by JEL classification: E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
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