Inflation Watch turns official price statistics into plain English, and is honest about what the numbers can and cannot tell you.
Where does the data come from?
Live public data from official statistical agencies and central banks. Every figure in the app carries the month it is from and whether it is final, provisional, or a reading saved earlier on your device.
Why does my area sometimes show an older month than the national figure?
Only three metro areas get a new price reading every month. The rest are measured every other month, so roughly half of them are one month behind at any given time. The app labels each area's own as-of date rather than implying everything is current.
Why can't I compare two areas' index numbers?
Because each area counts from a different starting year. A lower index number does not mean a cheaper city. The app therefore only ever compares rates of change between areas, never the index levels themselves.
Why is October 2025 missing?
It was never collected. The agency that collects it was shut down at the time. The app leaves the gap visible rather than filling it with a guess.
Why does the app sometimes say it is out of fresh data for today?
The public data service allows each device a limited number of requests per day. The app is careful with them, and will not ask for figures that cannot exist yet, but heavy use in a single day can still reach the limit. Everything already downloaded stays available, and fresh data returns the next day.
Is the forecast reliable?
Treat it as a range, not a prediction. Inflation is genuinely hard to forecast. The app runs fourteen models, scores each one only on months it never saw while learning, and throws out any that cannot beat simply assuming nothing changes. It shows you which ones won and which lost.
Is any of this financial advice?
No. The app describes published data and does arithmetic on numbers you supply. It has no knowledge of your circumstances. For any significant financial decision, talk to someone qualified who can look at your whole situation.
Found a bug, or something that reads wrong? Contact dman937942@gmail.com.
Last updated: September 2026
Inflation Watch does not collect, transmit, or share any personal data. There is no account system, no analytics, and no advertising.
What is stored on your device: Your spending figures, chosen area, saved preferences, and the most recent readings the app downloaded. All of it stays on your device. None of it is transmitted to us, to Apple, or to any third party.
Location: If you grant location access, it is used only on your device to work out which published price area best describes where you live. Your location is never transmitted to us or stored anywhere off your device. The app works fully without it. You can simply pick your area from a list instead.
What the app fetches: The app makes outbound requests to public statistical and central bank data services to display current figures. These are one-way reads of public data. No personal or device information is sent beyond what is inherent to any standard network request.
Notifications: If you turn them on, notifications are generated entirely on your device by comparing newly fetched public data against what the app saw last time. Nothing is pushed from any server, and no notification data leaves your device.
What we collect: Nothing.