Owner Occupied Housing, Inflation and Monetary Policy

The ECB and Eurostat have been trying to bring owner-occupied housing (OOH) into the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for two decades without success. OOH is now back on the agenda as part of the ECB’s new monetary-policy strategy. A fresh perspective is needed. We argue that a viable way forward is using a simplified version of the user-cost method. This would improve the harmonization of the HICP, help close the credibility gap between measured inflation and the public’s perception of it, and make it easier for the ECB to achieve its inflation target.