Consumer prices in Denmark 1502–2007

The article presents a consumer price index for Denmark 1502–2007 and discusses some of the more conceptual issues relating to compilation of historical price indices and measurement of inflation. For the post-1815 period, the consumer prices index (CPI) is based on existing figures whereas new data have been constructed for the pre-1815 period. Due to limited data availability the CPI is based on ‘silver prices’ for the period 1502–1640. Since the Danish currency depreciated vis-à-vis silver during this period, the pre-1640 CPI figures clearly underestimate the actual level of inflation. Disregarding periods with actual war inflation and the deflation during the first two decades or so after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, there seems only to have been one major exception from the overall picture of price stability in the post-1640 period: the first four decades following the end of the Second World War where inflation expectations lost their anchor.