New index to measure cost of goods, services

 A NEW Consumer Price Index (CPI)basket which measures changes in prices of goods and services has been collated to give a true picture of inflation in the country.

The index accounts for a high proportion of expenditure by families. It replaces the old index which is outdated because the consumption patterns of people have changed, acting National Statistician Roko Koloma says.

The index is based on the new basket of goods and services derived from the 2009-10 Household Income Expenditure Survey.

National Planning and Monitoring Minister Charles Abel said the CPI information caused inflation figures.

“It’s important we have the time and accurate information relating to inflation,” Abel said.

“Trying to measure CPI, we find out the pattern of the average consumer in the country, try to select all items we would all buy and create a basket and then use that as a standard measure to compare the prices of the goods quarterly.

“That basket of goods has been out of date and the activity we did was to update the income household expense survey and to see what the latest spending patterns are.

“And in doing that survey, we now create a new basket of goods and that resulted in updated inflation information figures from the first quarter inflation figures of 2014.”