In February and March 2006, statisticians from Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Cook Islands spent four weeks in Wellington on attachment to Statistics New Zealand, as part of Statistics New Zealand's International Assistance Programme. Their time was spent learning how to undertake a consumer price index (CPI) rebase, which involves reviewing the selection and relative importance of goods and services in the basket, to ensure they reflect current household spending habits.
While each of the four countries produces a CPI and has undertaken a rebase in the past, most had not done so over the past 10 years and little documentation was available to guide the statisticians through the process again. The training programme covered CPI international best practice and documentation procedures. The visiting statisticians also received help on how to apply this theory and practice to the situations of their own countries.
Hosting the programme was a useful experience for the CPI Development team within Statistics NZ's Prices business unit. The team was undertaking a major review of the New Zealand CPI at the time of the attachment, and it was useful for the team to be able to share their knowledge with other statisticians and at the same time improve their own understanding of the rebase process.
To follow up the attachment, in October 2006 Peter Campion of the CPI Development team spent two weeks at the Cook Islands Statistics Office to provide technical assistance with the rebase of the Cook Islands CPI. Aspects of the rebase covered during Peter's visit included:
- reselecting the basket of representative goods and services
- calculating new expenditure weights (based on a recent household expenditure survey and other sources)
- reviewing the product specifications of the goods and services in the basket
- reviewing the outlet sample.
An aim of the visit was to work closely with staff from the Cook Islands office, so that they would gain a good understanding of what was needed for future CPI rebases.
Back to Price Index News: April 2007