The idea for this new inflation index originated at a lunch held almost exactly a year ago. One of the guests noted that the Hong Kong consumer price index was very low, but it did not necessarily feel like inflation was low.
His own spending patterns suggested that it was far higher than 0.2% - the CPI level recorded last December. If you have a yuppie lifestyle, then inflation is much higher than that, he commented. It would be a good idea to construct an inflation index based on the sorts of goods and services that reflected that lifestyle.
We readily agreed that this was a good...
