Inflation trends in OECD countries during July and August 2022
Between July and August 2022, inflation eased in 16 of the 38 OECD member economies as energy price gains cooled. Yet 15 OECD nations still reported double digit inflation in August, with the sharpest rates recorded in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Turkey. This pattern reflects a mixed inflation landscape across advanced economies in that period, influenced by energy markets and domestic price dynamics.
Overall, energy costs within the OECD rose by 30.2 percent year over year in August, marking a 5.2 percentage point slowdown from the prior month. In contrast, food prices advanced by 15 percent, edging higher by half a percentage point from the month before. These shifts highlight energy market cooling paired with persistent food-price pressures across several economies.
Core inflation, which strips out the more volatile movements in food and energy, climbed by four tenths to 7.2 percent as of August. This suggests that underlying price pressures remained firm even after volatile components were removed from the calculation.
For the eighth month of the year, the annual inflation rate in the G7 eased slightly by one tenth to 7.5 percent, while in the euro area it rose by two tenths to 9.1 percent. Across the G20 as a whole, inflation stood steady at 9.2 percent for a third consecutive month, underscoring broad but uneven price developments among large economies.
Within the OECD, Turkey posted the highest inflation rate at 80.2 percent, up six tenths from the prior period. Estonia followed with 24.8 percent, an increase of about two percentage points, and Lithuania registered 22.4 percent, up eight tenths. These headline figures illustrate the divergent inflation experiences even among neighboring or nearby economies during mid-2022.
On the other end of the spectrum, Japan reported the lowest inflation at 3.0 percent, rising by four tenths from the previous reading, while Switzerland showed 3.5 percent, up by one tenth. Israel had inflation of 4.6 percent, which was about six tenths lower than the prior month. These contrasts emphasize the varied inflationary paths across OECD members during this period.