The first release of G20 consumer price index (CPI) — a timely measure of inflation for the G20 area —shows a slowing trend of annual inflation at 3 per cent in August 2013.
This is down from the level of 3.2 per cent inflation recorded for the G20 area in the year to July.
The G20 CPI is the second aggregate statistic released by the International Monetary Fund following the first publication of aggregate quarterly G20 GDP estimates on March 14 last year.
These G20 aggregates are an outcome of the implementation of the G20 Data Gaps initiative—a set of 20 recommendations on the further enhancement of statistics as agreed by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.
The process is coordinated by the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics: Bank for International Settlements, European Central Bank, Eurostat, International Monetary Fund (chair), OECD, United Nations and the World Bank.
The G20 consists of the following economies: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.
The G20 CPI aggregate reflects diverging patterns among the world’s largest economies.
India, Argentina, Indonesia and Turkey experienced the highest annual inflation rates (equal to or above 8.0 per cent) in August 2013.
Japan, France, Canada and Italy had the lowest annual inflation rate (between 0.9% and 1.2%).
In August 2013, annual inflation slowed in Turkey (to 8.0%, down from 8.6% in July), the United States (to 1.5%, down from 2.0%), Germany (to 1.6%, down from 1.9%), and more moderately in the European Union (to 1.5%, down from 1.7%), Brazil (to 6.1%, down from 6.3%), India (to 10.7%, down from 10.8%) and China (to 2.6%, down from 2.7%).
In contrast, annual inflation picked up in Indonesia (to 8.8%, up from 8.6%) and Japan (to 0.9%, up from 0.7%) while it remained stable in the Russian Federation (at 6.5%), South Africa (at 6.4%), Mexico (at 3.5%), and Italy (at 1.2%).