Weekly Updates

  • The end of inflation may be approaching. This is not because prices will stop changing, but it reflects the changing way goods are sold. Modern technology allows retailers to charge different people different prices for the same product bought at the same time. The law of one price is under threat.
  • This is the traditional way of pricing goods. Before mass urbanization, retailers knew their customers personally and could use that knowledge (or knowledge revealed by barter) to charge the highest price each individual customer could bear. Today, online retail, the recent introduction of digital price labels in stores, and artificial intelligence recreate that knowledge and pricing power.
  • Individual pricing makes conventional  inflation measurement impossible. Surveying prices in person or online would just record the personal price paid by a government-employed middle-aged statistician. This may not be representative of the general population.
  • The UK shows how inflation may be salvaged. In a very exciting move, February consumer price inflation data included prices captured from supermarket barcode scanners—millions of individual prices paid by individual consumers. Personal discounts offered to shoppers with loyalty cards are now included. If inflation is to survive, statistical agencies may have to abandon sampling and seek to collect every price paid.

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