It has long been a topic of conversation for many: the expensive prices. Inflation figures vary enormously from country to country, but wallets are struggling almost everywhere in the world than they were a few years ago. Inflation is calculated using the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is a “basket” of selected goods and services. However, as consumption naturally varies greatly from person to person, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has now developed a tool that allows you to calculate your personal inflation.
Inflation in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the annual inflation rate reached its all-time high of no less than 14.5 percent in September last year. Since then, however, inflation has been on a downward trend. In July, consumer goods and services were still 4.6 percent more expensive than in the same month last year.
The consumer price index shows the change in the price level for the average consumer. By tracking millions of price changes, a single percentage is calculated that approximates how much more money consumers spent on average compared to the same month last year.
Statistics Netherlands selects a representative and diverse group of goods and services that consumers buy on a regular basis and assigns each item a specific weighting factor that reflects its importance in consumer spending
Since everyone has different spending patterns, the actual inflation rate also differs from person to person.
Calculate your personal inflation
With the so-called personal inflation calculator, you can roughly specify your own consumer behavior in order to get an idea of ​​the average annual price development of your expenses.
To outline an example, let’s start with the personal situation of a “typical” student. Since many students like to drink something, we are increasing the amount for food and alcohol by 20 percent. We also assume that the hypothetical student lights a cigarette regularly.
Most students make full use of the free travel and therefore do not have their own car. As a result, public transport costs are minimal and all costs associated with the car can be reduced to zero.
According to Money Wise, the average rent for a student room is €436 per month and an average of €181 per month is spent on groceries.
With the rental costs, the cost of living and the settlement of the annual expenses, we come to a total of 1,635 euros per month.
The hypothetical person in this example would have a personal inflation rate of 6.8 percent in July. This is 2.2 percentage points above the actual annual inflation rate of 4.6 percent. If we look at the peak of inflation in September last year, personal inflation is “only” 6.8 percent: no less than 7.5 percent below the peak of 14.3 percent.
Curious about your own inflation rate? Then fill in Statistics Netherlands’ personal inflation calculator.