Fable Data Informs New IMF Inflation Paper

Using Fable’s transaction data for the UK and Germany, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a Working Paper on changing consumption patterns, and the resulting inflation bias during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper uses Fable’s data to update the official inflation weights and quantify the resulting inflation bias, as official weights become outdated when consumption habits change quickly.

The IMF analysis explains how consumers experienced a higher level of inflation at the beginning of the pandemic and how inflation weights differ among age groups, in-person and online spending. These differences affect the purchasing power of the population and their consumption of different goods and services. This is the latest powerful example of how Fable’s unique consumer transaction data can be used around the world as a complement to official statistics and to inform global policymaking.

This paper has since been published in the Journal of Macroeconomics: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164070423000435