The Economist article also describes how policy makers and central banks often have to resort to outdated price data and how sudden important changes typically are in a global economy. So when they find the data the important trends may already have emigrated
to the next big thing.
As we have moved from soon mandatory e-Invoicing+e-Receipts to Real Time VAT we can also see how this not only produces enormous cost (and important CO2) savings and kills most of the grey economy but also produces a full real time picture of all purchases
- where the money goes. Be it before or after salary increases, product news, tax changes, legislation or regional efforts.
All without endangering business secrets and for sure being a great equalizer for the all-important SME sector. And naturally building on GDPR and MyData.org making data protected and useful for the citizen.
So it is only a question of time before this helps inflation/deflation trackers. See on a daily basis what has been paid for, where and by what kind of buyers and how it reacts to income changes. And this is a byproduct of cost- and stress saving Real Time
Economy ecosystems. And of course the some 1400 billion purchase lines in Europe contain a large number other important data - like CO2..
Why not move faster?