Data Sources for CPI: Big Data of the Internet and the Systems of the Federal Tax Service of Russia

Abstract

The paper substantiates possibilities for using alternative tools for calculating the consumer price index – a topical research subject in Russian economic and statistical science. One of the frequently mentioned solutions is using data arrays from information systems – big data. While analyzing the existing methodological and statistical information foundations for measuring the consumer price index in of- ficial Russian statistics, the authors consider both the advantages and disadvantages of the two main options for using big data: collecting information on the Internet (web scraping) and using data from electronic fiscal documents of cash registers (online cash registers).

Several ways to increase the information content and quality of measuring inflation using big data collected via the Internet and on- line cash register system are discussed. It is noted that they have disadvantages (first and foremost, non-integration with the SNA-based macroeconomic calculations). In this regard, it is emphasized that optimism about the transition to fully automated price monitoring tools in the coming years should be considered excessive. The author's position is that soon big data can serve as complements rather than substitutes for traditional price collection methods. It just presupposes the need for further empirical studies of transaction prices, which are possible based on online checkout technology, which opens a fundamentally new format of statistical observation – not the supply prices at which goods and services are offered for sale, but the demand prices.