Hungarians sense an inflation rate twice as big as the reported level

According to the official data, consumer prices elevated 9.5% in April 2022 if compared with last April. However, a representative GKI survey (1,000 households) has found that consumer perception is that the inflation rate was 22%. It must be mentioned this result isn’t based on facts (e.g. recorded prices, questionnaires, etc.), but on how people feel things are (which can be distorted by the events of the recent past).

Still, why people feel this way has its reasons: partly because of statistical reasons, and partly because of the methodology used. Consumers try to react to the fact that they perceive a higher inflation than actually is: they demand higher salaries/pensions/social benefits, so that their purchasing power doesn’t decrease, and they also want bigger returns on their investments. What is more, if there is a big difference between the measured price index and the actual price index, then each real index looks better (real pension, real consumption, real wage and practically the real GDP too) than they actually are. //