MUSCAT: The thirteenth edition of Consumer Price Index (CPI), which provides an overview of consumer price-based inflation and the methodology used to calculate the same, was published by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The bulletin indicates that the CPI showed an upward trend from 69.7 points in 2004 to 104.9 points in 2017.
During the period between 2011 and 2017, the magnitude of the change in the index was highest in 2011 with 4.1 per cent and the lowest in the year 2015 when it was 0.1 per cent.
At the governorate level, Governorate of Dhofar recorded the highest number in consumer price indices in the Sultanate during the period from 2011 to 2017.
Dhofar recorded 106.8 points during 2017, while the Governorate of North Al Batinah recorded the lowest figure reaching 96.4 points in 2011.
In the first section, the publication shows the CPI concept of measuring changes in prices of goods and services of the household consumption basket during a particular period called comparison period in relation to another period called as base period.
It also indicates the use of the CPI in economic and social analysis, policy making and study of the relationship among wages, or salaries and the cost of living.
It also clarifies real changes or the relationship between money and what is exchanged with it as goods and services.
This section also gives an overview of the evolution of CPI in the Sultanate, which has seen many phases of development ever since its inception in 1972.
The second section of the publication deals with the methodology of the CPI and factors taken into consideration, such as weights, which represent the structure of expenditure based on the household expenditure and income survey.
These weights include consumer spending, which includes a large number of items, goods and services.
It is difficult to deal with all of them to choose a group of goods and services, which represent the consumer basket and considered a representative of the true patterns of consumption in the society.
The second section also deals with geographical area, sources and periodicity of price collection. — ONA
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