The National Statistics Office has begun preparations for a 2018 survey to establish a new base level for the country’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) as the current CPI basket is five years old.
NSO has begun preparing Officers to implement the 2018 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) which is intended to establish a new base level from the previous 2012 Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket.
The NSO says the HIES is important for the revision of the CPI basket of goods and services because over the years spending patterns of people change and the CPI must report changes in prices of goods and services that people mostly spend their income to meet their daily needs.
The NSO also aims to expand the collection of Towns in the CPI as the current CPI focuses on major selected urban centres of Port Moresby, Lae. Rabaul, Goroka, Mount Hagen, Kimbe, Alotau and Madang.
The 2018 HIES data collection is also expected to enhance data inputs into National Accounts from the household level, particularly the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates for PNG as well as other information to measure the socio-economic status of households and communities in the country.
NSO officers attending the workshop evaluated the last HIES conducted in 2009/2010 and made recommendations for improvement and plan a way forward for the new survey.
National Statistician, Roko Koloma said the review will enable NSO to look at the challenges it faced in the last round of the HIES and reflect on how families and households spend their hard earned income to improve their living standard.
He said the evaluation will ensure there is consistency in rebasing the CPI in 2018 and is envisages that the findings will be used to create a separate CPI basket for the rural areas as the income levels, spending power and patterns vary in urban and rural areas.
Koloma says NSO will ensure that the ordinary people better understand the different income levels in urban and rural areas of the country and social welfare of different households with data from the survey.
Meanwhile, NSO is continuing the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) into 2017 to complete the enumeration in all selected census units throughout the country.
Data from the 2016 DHS will provide the indicators on the health status of the people of PNG.
Picture: NSO officers who attended the evaluation workshop at the Koitaki Country Club at Sogeri, Central Province. (Credit: NSO).