Abstract

Food price inflation is an important metric to inform economic policy but traditional sources of consumer prices are often produced with delay during crises and only at an aggregate level. This may poorly reflect the actual price trends in rural or poverty-stricken areas, where large populations reside in fragile situations. This data set includes food price estimates and is intended to help gain insight in price developments beyond what can be formally measured by traditional methods. The estimates are generated using a machine-learning approach that imputes ongoing subnational price surveys, often with accuracy similar to direct measurement of prices. The data set provides new opportunities to investigate local price dynamics in areas where populations are sensitive to localized price shocks and where traditional data are not available.

        A dataset of monthly food price inflation estimates (aggregated for all food products available in the data) is also available for all countries covered by this modeling exercise.

Geographic coverage notes

The data cover the following sub-national areas: Tillaberi, Tahoua, Agadez, Zinder, Dosso, Niamey, Maradi, Diffa, Market Average