New CPI awaits consumer survey, NSO won't use other data, says source
Informist, Tuesday, Aug 22, 2023
By Priyansh Verma and Shubham Rana
NEW DELHI - The National Statistical Office will wait for the next Household Consumption Expenditure Survey to update the current Consumer Price Index series and is not keen to use the Private Final Consumption Expenditure data even if the ongoing expenditure survey is delayed, according to an official with the statistics organisation.
"We received a suggestion of using the data of Private Final Consumption Expenditure, which is used in compiling the GDP data, to assess consumption patterns of the country, and calculate the weights of items in the CPI basket," the official told Informist. "However, it was just a suggestion, there is absolutely no discussion of adopting that method. We will wait for the completion of the ongoing Household Consumption Expenditure Survey and then change the series."
EXCLUSIVE
In case the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey takes longer than expected, then the statistics office will decide the next course of action. "If that (delay in Household Consumption Expenditure Survey) happens, we will decide another course of action. One suggestion we received is to conduct another survey, an independent survey, but that has not been discussed."
The suggestion to use the data of Private Final Consumption Expenditure was one of the suggestions made at a recent 'Chintan Shivir' held by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Moneycontrol had reported earlier this month. At the brainstorming session, experts suggested alternative methods to revise the CPI data series in case the results of the ongoing consumer surveys were delayed again, the report said.
The official said that the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey for 2022-23 has been completed, and it will be repeated for 2023-24.
In an interview to Informist last month, Pronab Sen, chairman of the newly appointed Standing Committee on Statistics, had said that the overhaul of the CPI index may take at least two more years to materialise because the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey will be repeated to check robustness of the data.
Economists have flagged the need for upgrade of the CPI series and the basket to better reflect the consumption habits of consumers. The base year of the current CPI series is 2012, which factors in the consumption expenditure survey carried out in 2011-12.
The consumption expenditure survey for 2017-18 was junked by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in 2019 citing data quality issues. The government was to conduct fresh surveys for 2020-21 and 2021-22, but both were delayed because of the pandemic. The government later announced it will conduct a new survey for 2022-23. End
