Inflation Compass does not generate its own economic data. Every inflation rate, CPI figure, and benchmark shown on this site is drawn from published statistics produced by national governments, central banks, and international organizations. This page lists the primary sources we draw from, and explains the validation process each figure goes through before it appears on the site.
International organizations
National statistical agencies
Direct national cross-checks
Where available, we cross-check IMF and World Bank figures against the originating national statistics office directly:
Central banks
Central bank policy rate references shown in our Inflation vs Investment tool (e.g. Federal Reserve, Bank of England, State Bank of Pakistan, Reserve Bank of India) are drawn from each institution's publicly published policy rate announcements, used as illustrative context alongside inflation figures rather than as investment return data itself.
How we validate data before publication
Our four-step verification process
- Cross-source comparison. Where a country's inflation rate is available from more than one source (e.g. both IMF and a national statistics office), we compare the two before publishing. Material discrepancies are investigated rather than silently averaged.
- Plausibility checks. New figures are checked against the prior 3–5 years of the same country's trend. A sudden implausible jump triggers a manual review before publication.
- Source attribution retained. Every dataset on the site is tagged internally with its origin and the date it was pulled, so any figure can be traced back to its original publication.
- Periodic re-verification. Published figures are periodically re-checked against the latest releases from the same institutions, since statistical agencies do occasionally revise prior-year figures after initial publication.
Update frequency
The IMF World Economic Outlook — our primary cross-country source — is refreshed twice a year, in April and October. We update Inflation Compass's dataset shortly after each release. National-source cross-checks (BLS, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Eurostat, ONS) are refreshed on a rolling basis as those agencies publish monthly or quarterly updates. The current data vintage in use across this site is noted in the transparency panel at the bottom of every calculator page.
Projected vs. finalized figures
Because official CPI data for the most recent year is typically finalized several months after that year ends, the current and immediate-next-year figures shown across this site are IMF projections rather than finalized statistics. We do not disguise this — projected years are treated the same as any other year in our display, but the underlying IMF publication itself labels them as estimates, and we inherit that same status. As official outturns are published, we update our figures to match.
Reporting a data issue
If you believe a figure on this site is out of date, mismatched against its cited source, or simply looks wrong, we want to know. Please see our Editorial Policy for how corrections are handled, or go directly to our Contact page to report it.