Bank Tracks US Economy Using ’12 Days of Christmas’ Gift Prices

There are a lot of formulas to calculate the state of the US economy, but a bank in Pittsburgh has its own unique formula which uses the gifts from the '12 Days of Christmas' as its benchmark.

While an unusual way of tracking US economics, Pittsburgh-based bank PNC found the cost of the gifts in the famous holiday song are a reasonably accurate picture of the US economy, including inflation.

The 2015 PNC Wealth Management Christmas Price Index indicates the economy is recovering very slowly with the total cost of the individual items from the '12 Days' increasing a measly 0.6 percent over last year. Still, the cost of the items in the last verse of the song will cost roughly $34,131 this year.

According to Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer of PNC's asset management group,

The headline, I think, is that inflation in this economy, with the sort of tepid recovery we've seen, is almost nonexistent."

Here is the itemized list and price of this year's '12 Days of Christmas' gifts according to the PNC Wealth Management Christmas Price Index rounded to whole dollars.

• Partridge - $25
• Pear Tree - $190
• Two Turtle Doves - $290
• Three French Hens - $182
• Four Calling Birds - $600
• Five Gold Rings - $750
• Six Geese Laying - $360
• Seven Swans Swimming - $13,170
• Eight Maids Milking - $58
• Nine Ladies Dancing - $7,553
• 10 Lords Leaping - $5,508
• 11 Pipers Piping - $2,635
• 12 Drummers Drumming - $2,855

If you decided to follow the song and give each item every time it was mentioned, you'd spend over $155,407. Of course, you'd also have the expense of feeding and housing all the birds. Plus, you'd have to explain why things suddenly went from quiet to really loud at your house.

[ABC News]