(13 October 2021) Low interest rates, economic stimulus and high uncertainty over the course of the pandemic boosted consumer demand for new homes as well as home prices around the world. To estimate a potential contribution of soaring home prices to overall inflation, we analyzed home price and housing rent data for 33 economies for which data was available in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Housing represents a growing source of budgetary pressure for Americans, and the data suggests American's desire for space is at least partially to blame. In 2017, housing represented 33 percent of total US household expenditures, with rent and mortgage—as compared to other household expenses like furnishings and utilities—making up about 60 percent of the household budget, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Renters have been particularly hard hit, with more than 40 percent spending 35 percent or more of their income on housing. While only about 20 percent of mortgage...
Housing affordability and its impact on middle-income households worldwide is emerging as a major concern throughout the developed world. According to the London-based consultancy Knight Frank, housing prices in the world's largest cities rose by 3 percent on average during the last year. The strongest growth was observed in Turkey where average housing prices increased by 18 percent in the last year. In contrast, across the Black Sea in the Ukraine, property prices declined by 12 percent last year. The US house price index published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows a...
(1 March 2020) The recent rise in global food prices poses a direct threat to many countries and millions of households around the world. In its recent article on the subject Bloomberg named five such "hotspots" — Russia, India, Brazil, Turkey, and Nigeria. According to Bloomberg, the acceleration of food price inflation in these countries has the potential not only to exacerbate food insecurity for families but to transfer to social protests. Looking deeper at the most recent data on food inflation in the five hotspots, and investigating the domestic patterns of supply and...
(21 June 2021) Fast post-COVID recovery of consumer demand amid supply chain disruptions has resulted in rising inflation in most countries around the world. In many economies, consumer price inflation (CPI) has already exceeded monetary policy targets, but so far central banks are mostly ignoring the rising inflation on the grounds that the acceleration is caused by temporary factors. The reluctance of monetary authorities to combat rising inflation pressure raises a question of whether the world economy may end up with uncontrollably high inflation by the end of the year. By the...
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