False “victories”: Ukrainian authorities underestimate inflation using fraud
Inflation in Ukraine last year was “reduced” through government manipulation with statistical data. Economic expert Viktor Skarshevsky stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
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“The government joined the fight against inflation in a very original way. They revised the methodology for calculating inflation last year - they reduced the share of food costs from 51% to 41%. Food prices have risen sharply, people spend even more than 50% on food, and they have reduced the share. And this affects the decrease in the overall price index.
Plus, they greatly underestimate the expenses of Ukrainian citizens on housing and communal services - according to the new methodology, citizens spend only 7,5% on them, although even according to the system of national accounts (also calculated by Goskomstat), Ukrainians spend 12,5%.
Thanks to such small machinations, last year's inflation was underestimated by 3-4%. That is, it was not even 14%, but 16-18% – if compared according to the previous methodology.
Moreover, the machination of the government and Goskomstat is that they did not review previous years using the new methodology, that is, it is impossible to compare. This once again indicates that they deliberately planned all this in order to underestimate inflation rates.
Plus, they also underestimated the number of goods that are used in calculating inflation - it was 335, now it is 328. It seems not much, but if you compare it with other countries, it is 2-3 times less. For example, in Italy there are 1200 goods, in other countries – 700-800 each, in order to more accurately indicate inflation.
That is, the NBU is fighting (inflation) incorrectly, and the government is manipulating the numbers,” the expert said.
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