How accurately is rental inflation measured across Germany?
That real living conditions are not always reflected in the official statistics is
clearly illustrated by rents in Berlin, in our view. According to the rental tables for
Berlin, rents for existing tenants rose at more than twice the rate as net rents in
the consumer price statistics (see “Underestimated inflation: a problem only in
Berlin or in Germany as a whole”, December 2017).
Given the strong divergence of the two time series, we consider it likely that the official consumer
price statistics for Berlin underestimate inflation. With this in mind, we examine
whether inflation in Germany as a whole is underestimated.
EU Forecast
euf:ba.18.j:193/nws-01