Google is going to do the calculation of the inflation index

Moreover, the search engine will do this based on open data available on the web. Inflation Google will determine both as a global and regional indicator. As the main source of information will be used data from various online stores, Google Price Index. The developers of the new Google project claim that the Google Price Index is quite suitable for deriving an inflation index, since the principles of the Google Price Index work are similar to the principles that apply to real economic indices.

The main ideologist of the Google Price Index project, including the calculation of inflation, is Google Vern, an economist at Google, who is convinced that real economic indicators need to be collected on the Web. For example, in the US, the main economic indicator is the so-called “Consumer Price Index”, and this indicator even affects stock market indicators. True, analysts derive this index by old-fashioned methods - they collect various data from ordinary stores, which, of course, is not such a fast process, and then spend several weeks analyzing the data obtained. But the service from Google is doing the same work in real time.
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Currently, work on the Google Price Index is already in full swing, but the corporation is still hesitating, is it worth it to show the results of the work of the public, or use the derived index on its own. Veiran noted that the index derived by the corporation practically coincides with the consumer price index derived by economists, which shows the reliability of the methodology created by Google.

There are, of course, problems - for example, the Google Price Index is created based on an analysis of the price dynamics of those products that are sold on the Web. These include home appliances, software, watches, consumer electronics, gadgets, and more. But here some types of goods are either little sold through the Network, or not sold at all - for example, who saw a fully functional online car shop? As a result, the Google Price Index is somewhat lopsided, so to speak, without reflecting the sales trends of many types of goods.

It would be interesting to look at the results of the corporation’s work in this direction - it’s not a secret that official data on inflation and other economic indicators presented by the authorities of many CIS countries do not really coincide with reality, but the Google Price Index could show the real state of affairs. and many would believe him more than official data. Let's wait a bit, maybe Google will roll out its technique in open access ...

Via FT.com