According to the announcement published by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) on 4 May 2021, the methodology of core inflation calculation will change. From the publication of the consumer price index data of April 2021 (11 May 2021), the HCSO narrows the range of products taken into account in the calculation of core inflation by excluding alcoholic beverages and tobacco products.
The Magyar Nemzeti Bank has previously put great emphasis on measuring underlying inflationary processes, so it regularly publishes three of its own indicators to capture underlying inflationary processes: core inflation excluding indirect tax changes, inflation of sticky-price products and services and inflation of demand-sensitive products and services.
Among the MNB's underlying indicators, the current changes made by the HCSO have an effect on core inflation excluding indirect taxes and inflation of demand-sensitive products and services. The central bank will also make these changes to its own indicators at the time of the next data release (11 May 2021) in the light of the data provided by the HCSO. The time series of core inflation excluding indirect taxes and inflation of demand-sensitive products and services calculated according to the new methodology will also be traced back in the relevant reports and publications of the MNB.
With regard to central bank indicators, it is important to emphasize that they have so far filtered out the effect of changes in tax rates, so the change is not expected to cause a significant change in core inflation excluding indirect taxes calculated by the MNB or in inflation of demand-sensitive products.