Quote Originally Posted by Gandalf View Post
When ricecake goes up 25% in a year that is a monetary decision. In fact all of the prices go up at the same points every year. The Chinese New Year holiday is always followed by an increase in prices. My wife bulk buys in preparation for it, it's common knowledge that this happens. If you are just going to ignore price increases and say that it has nothing to do with inflation, then you are just changing the definition of inflation. Like I say, I live in the real world and will judge inflation by what I have to spend to buy the things I need, governments chop and change things and what is measured as inflation today would be laughed at 40 years ago.

Also, this place is where they make the cars, washing machines, televisions etc, and they are all much more expensive here than they are in the West. They gouge their own populace when it comes to the trendy things governments in the West like to use as examples of inflation reducing items. So when you have that, plus the food that is double the price of food in the West, the cost of property, the cost of clothing etc and with lower wages. Well, the prices seem to come from somewhere and it isn't just supply and demand. It's also because of protectionism here. Mind you, it doesn't bother me so much as I am wearing the same sweater I was wearing at 19.
It's really simple Miles. Prices for items like food and fuel are mainly altered by supply and demand, not monetary policy (monetary policy being printing money, raising or lowering interest rates and so on). Central banks/finance ministries have no real control over the price of food and oil. Those prices are set by the market and vary a lot. So to find a true measure of inflation, to find how monetary policy set by a country (interest rates, money supply etc) is affecting inflation they have an measuring index which strips out food and energy items. That rate, commonly known as core inflation, lets them know how their current policy is affecting the inflation of goods and services that they have control over the prices of.

You may live in the real world and have to pay real world prices but if there's a really bad global rice harvest and the price of rice doubles it's not down to anything the money/finance people have any control over. The price has not doubled because some government somewhere did some QE or increased their central bank's balance sheet or whatever.