The general increase in prices of goods and services which are basic needs for the community or the decline in purchasing power of the country's currency.
Consumer Price Index (CPI):
An index, that measures the average change in prices between times, of a package of goods and services consumed by the population/households in a certain base period.
Price statistics particularly consumer/retail price statistics are collected in order to calculate Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI is one of economic indicators that can reflect the inflation/deflation of goods and services prices as a whole. Since June 2008, the CPI calculation uses base year of 2007 (2007 = 100) and covers 66 cities. The previous CPI calculation only covered 45 cities and used base year of 2002 (2002=100).
In order to compile the CPI in 66 cities, consumer or retail price data are obtained from these cities. The data cover 284 - 441 goods and services which are classified into seven expenditure groups namely: foodstuff; prepared food, beverage, cigarette & tobacco; housing, water, electricity, gas & fuel; clothing; health; education, recreation & sports; and transport, communication & financial services. Each group consists of several sub groups, and then in every sub group there are several items. Furthermore, some items have several qualities or specifications.
From each city, some representative traditional and modern markets are selected to represent the prices in that city. Price data of each commodity is obtained from 3 or 4 outlets which are visited by enumerator through direct interview.
The Indonesian CPI is calculated by modified Laspeyres formula. Arithmetic mean is used in calculating the average (mean) of goods and services price but for some seasonal goods and services, geometric one is used.
The frequencies of price data collection are different from one item to another depending on the characteristic of the items as follows:
Rice price data collection in Jakarta is daily
For several items popularly known as basic necessities, price data are collected weekly on Monday and Tuesday.
For some food items, price data are collected every two weeks on Wednesday and Thursday of the first week and the third week.
For other food items, prepared food, drinks, cigarettes and tobacco, price data are collected monthly on Tuesday close to day 15 during 3 days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday).
For durable goods price data are collected monthly on day 5 to day 15.
Services price data are collected monthly on day 1 to day 10.
House rents data are collected monthly on day 1 to 10.
Domestic servant and baby sitter salaries are observed monthly on day 1 to 10.
Data related to the education expenses are collected monthly on day 1 to 10.
Badan Pusat Statistik Republik Indonesia (Statistics Indonesia of The Republic Indonesia)
Jl. Dr. Sutomo 6-8 Jakarta 10710 Indonesia, Telp (62-21) 3841195, 3842508, 3810291, Faks (62-21) 3857046, Mailbox : bpshq@bps.go.id
