ISLAMABAD
Pakistan is ready to revise base-year for computing the consumer price index and wholesale price index from 2007-08 to 2015-16.
Briefing the media at the monthly briefing on inflation, the acting Chief Statistician Mahmood Akhtar said all the major work for revising the base year was near finalisation. “Hopefully we will be announcing the consumer price index (CPI) based inflation in this October on the new base year.”
The new base year 2015-16 will replace the old one of 2007-08. The government has fulfilled all the conditions for revising the base year as surveys and studies were done to understand the consumption patterns as well as to include new concepts and changes in classifications.
Officials said the work on the revision of the base year was near completion and final approval is expected to be obtained from the technical committee, headed by vice chancellor, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, scheduled to meet on September 15.
Akhtar said that in a new measure it was decided that the data from 28 rural centres will be compiled along with 40 urban centres to finalise the inflation data. “This new mechanism will remove the gaps, if any, in the inflation data on a national basis.”
The CPI and WPI index will continue to be based on a weighted system. The weights for the rural and urban areas are already developed and work was going on finalising the new indices, officials said.
It is important to mention that in 2006, the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz directed for the change of base of CPI and WPI. A technical committee was notified headed by vice chancellor, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
On the report of the committee, the base of CPI and WPI was revised from 2000-01 to 2007-08. It was the 9th base change of indicators. The CPI prepared with 2000-01 as a base, measured average change in the consumer prices of a basket of 374 items, customarily purchased and consumed by the people. The index was based on a weighted system. The weights of commodities were derived from the Family Budget Survey conducted in 2000-01 in 35 cities for various income groups.
Wholesale Price Index is considered as a good estimator to measure the wholesale price level of commodities. The WPI series with base 2000-01 was computed for a basket constituting 425 items sold at primary level in the selected markets of 18 cities. The weights of items were derived from the aggregate value of marketable surplus of the items covered in WPI.
The inflation rate in August 2017 over August 2016 increased 3.42 per cent. The inflation rate in August over the previous month registered an increase of 0.19 per cent. The average inflation rate July-August 2017-18 over July-August 2016-17 also showed an increase of 3.16 per cent.
