ECONOMY
Economists urge govt for regular consumption surveys for precise macroeconomic data
- IBJ Bureau
- Sep 26, 2024
Several economists have recommended to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to look at conducting the Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (HCES) more regularly to ensure frequent base revision of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and other macroeconomic indicators that can reflect rapidly-changing consumption patterns.
The ministry has just concluded the HCES for 2023-24, as it aims to update the base year of the CPI by 2026. According to official sources, the results of the 2023-24 survey are largely similar to those of 2022-23, and thus the new CPI series would be computed based on the latter’s results.
Economists have also suggested to the ministry to make attempts to reduce discrepancy in estimation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reduce the lag of release of GDP data, provide disaggregated data (on urban, rural and district levels) and change the release time of these indices to provide sufficient time for analysis by the users on the same day. Currently, the CPI, Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and GDP data are released at 5:30 pm.
Further suggestions include possibility of better coverage of services in the revised series of the CPI, exploring compilation of core inflation on a monthly basis and revisiting the methodology of compiling housing index.
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