The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) says it will start using a revised Consumer
Price Index (CPI) basket to calculate inflation from March.
The review of the basket is to reflect changes in
household expenditure patterns over time. The resulting new CPI
index will have 2012 as the base year, the GSS said. The current index uses
2002 as the base year.
It added that the review is a regular exercise
conducted every five years, and is not informed by disputations over inflation
figures published by the Service.
“We are trying to make the basket accommodate
current happenings. This is because expenditure patterns have changed and there
are some items in the basket which have become obsolete,” acting Government
Statistician, Philomena Nyarko, told B&FT in an interview.
“We are finalising our data and so by March we
should be implementing the rebased figures,” she added.
The new basket will comprise 272 commodities, up
from the current basket’s composition of 242 items, after additions and
subtractions were made.
New weights will be assigned to the commodities to reflect
their relative importance in current household consumption.
Transport
and communication are among items that will see higher weightings as they now
make up a bigger share of household spending than previously.
This should see non-food items, like
transportation, communication and health account, for almost 60 percent of
goods in the basket.
Mr. Asuo Afram, Head of Price Statistics at the GSS,
explained that that the GSS arrived at the new basket and weights after studying the Ghana Living Standards Survey
5 (GLSS 5) and national accounts, and after broad consultations with the Bank
of Ghana, the finance ministry and other stakeholder groups.
He said the rebasing of the CPI basket is to meet the international
standards.
“Just like the rebasing of the country’s GDP estimates, the review of
the way inflation is calculated is also to ensure that the rate better reflects
what pertains on the ground.”
No comments:
Post a Comment