Consumers Price Index - December Quarter 2020
The Consumers Price Index (CPI) is an indicator or measure of prices changes. It is a fixed weighted average of price relatives and is computed using the Laspeyres price index formula. The current weighting pattern is based on the 2005 Household Expenditure Survey (HES), which was carried out in 2005/06. The HES information was used to select the 'basket', which is the commonly used term for the goods and services prices for the purpose of compiling the CPI.
Key Facts
Quarterly change
In the December 2020 quarter compared with September 2020 quarter, the consumer price index (CPI) decreased by 0.3 percent and the Underlying CPI by 0.9 percent.
- Miscellaneous goods and services group rose by 4.4 percent driven by increase in prices of Personal effects n.e.c (up 31.0 percent) and Personal care subgroup (up 3.7 percent).
- Household contents and household maintenance prices rose by 1.8 percent, influenced by increase in prices of Furniture, furnishings, carpets and other floor coverings (up 16.0 percent).
- All these increases were offset by the fall in the Food and Non-alcoholic beveragesgroup (fell by 1.6 percent) followed by Restaurants and accommodation services group (down by 1.0 percent) Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics group (declined by 0.7 percent)and Clothing and Footwear group (decreased by 0.4 percent).
Annual change
From the December 2019 quarter to the December 2020 quarter, the CPI inflation rate was 0.9 percent with the Underlying CPI of 1.6 percent.
- Miscellaneous Goods & Services group rose by 5.2 percent, with contribution from Personal effects n.e.c subgroup of 50.0percent.
- Household contents and household maintenance increased by 5.2 percent, with the main increase in prices of Household appliances with 37.5 percent and Furniture and furnishings, carpets and other floor coverings by 20.5 percent.
- Food prices increased by 2.3 percent with the highest increase in prices of Fish & Seafood subgroup by 8.2 percent.
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Information about CPI
The Consumer Price Index covers price changes of the basket of goods and services consumed by all households on Rarotonga (the main island).
The base year is 2019. Prices are collected for 199 items and from selected outlets around Rarotonga. Individual prices are combined using weights from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted in 2015/2016. The HIES information was used to select the basket of goods and services.
The inclusion of an underlying measure is a recent improvement and it is published at the same time as the CPI. The underlying measure excludes items of a highly volatile nature, items that are subject to policy changes.
It excludes some items fruits, vegetables, meat and fish, electricity rates, purchases of new and used motor vehicles, petrol and diesel, international airfares and domestic airfares.
The CPI is calculated as chain-linked Jevons indices (change in the geometric average price). At the higher level, indices will be calculated with standard Laspeyres-type aggregation.
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