ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the methodology and experiment results that allow one to be confident in using the consumer price index based on scraped price data, by showing how the mathematical models can address the method weaknesses, and what new opportunities this new method offers. Inflation is one of the economic phenomena that receive particular attention from public policy actors, because of its effects in the allocation of resources, the distribution of income, economic development, and thus on the well-being of the population. A large and growing number of retails are posting prices online all over the world, either to sell online or to advertise prices for potential customers during their online research. Since there is no historical record of these prices, they need to be continually collected over time. The solution has managed to obtain better information and focus more on the analysis, identifying opportunities for improvement in their forecasts and providing feedback to the system.
