Statistics trainees get hands-on experience

THE 22 statistics trainees undergoing a week-long training at Lealea village in Central visited shops in Port Moresby yesterday to collect prices of goods.
The training was organised by the National Statistical Office to support statistical capability development especially in price collection.
Statistician Murray Kemo said they were visiting shops and markets in the city.
“We have got only eight CPI (consumer price index) towns,” Kemo said.
“They are Port Moresby, Madang, Lae, Goroka, Mt Hagen, Alotau, Rabaul and Kimbe.
“And as we can see, the economy in Papua New Guinea is growing in urban as well as rural areas. So we want to expand these activities into the rural areas. That is why we have got all the representatives of the provinces to do the data collection for CPI.
“We’ve done the theory and now we are doing the practical of collecting price data in shops so the trainees can know how to collect the data in the provinces – especially in supermarkets and markets.
“There are about four teams and we’ll be visiting shopping outlets. We (NSO) normally visit supermarkets at monthly basis.”
National Statistician Roko Koloma said the NSO hoped to have people on the ground who could collect data.
“We are trying to ensure that when the next household income expenditure comes in the next six months or year, we should have sufficient data to compare changes in the prices.”