Page 154 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 3

STS538 Rameshwar S.

Compilation of Consumer Price Indices at the
national level, some experiences from Africa,
Asia and the Caribbean
Rameshwar Srivastava
RPS Associates, The Royal Statistical Society (RSS)

Abstract
The paper will cover the compilation of Consumer Price Indices (CPIs) at the
national level, using experiences from six countries in Africa (Ghana, Sierra
Leone, The Gambia), Asia (India) and the Caribbean (British Virgin Islands and
U.S. Virgin Islands). In most countries, the CPI is considered a key indicator of
economic performance, as well as an index for the temporal adjustment of
wages and social benefits. The coverage of goods and services in the CPI
depends on what type of index it is intended to be, and what contractual
payments or benefits it is intended to adjust over time. For instance, in the
United States, housing makes up one-third of the CPI, because it includes
owner-occupied imputed rents, whereas in Europe, only actual rents are
included, and so the relative weight of the housing component is about 6
percent of the basket.

Keywords
Indicator of economic performance, adjustment of wages and social benefits,
owner-occupied imputed rents, relative weight.

1. Introduction
The author has the unique experience of having worked and lived in 12
countries. With regards to CPI specific experience, the speaker was the Head
of Prices Section in the Ghana Statistical Services; was the United Nations
Statistical Training Adviser in Sierra Leone and contributed in the revision of
CPI; and more recently was UNDP Consultant in The Gambia and one of the
task was to analyse national Households Income and Expenditure Survey
(HIES) and compute the weights to revise the CPI.
The author was assigned by the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, UK
as Price Indices Economist to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in the Eastern
Caribbean. His task was to analyse the HIES and revise the CPI. Then he moved
to US Virgin Islands (USVI) and established the first CPI for USVI.

2. Methodology
The purposes of a CPI is to measure changes in consumer prices. The uses
are (i) a general measure of inflation, (ii) indexation by government, (iii) prices,
wages and salary adjustment in contracts, (iv) current cost accounting, and (v)

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