World CPI Proxy Breaks Below 1% by Eric Bush, CFA, Gavekal Capital Blog
There’s been a lot of of deflationary data recently (see here, here and here). The plunge in our simple World CPI proxy to the lowest level since October 2009 doesn’t really catch us off guard. The fact that one third of the 33 countries in our proxy are currently are seeing year-over-year declines in consumer prices is a bit eye-opening, however. Switzerland is leading the deflationary wave as Swiss consumer prices are down -1.4% year-over-year, more than they were at any point during the financial crisis. The year-over-year decline is the largest on record since 1959 for Switzerland. Of the 11 countries with negative CPI prints, seven are in Europe, three are in Asia and one is in the Middle East.
