Inflation rate computation updated
Inflation rate computation updated
JAKARTA (JP): The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) is updating the formula for computing the inflation rate, the agency's chairman Sugito Suwito said yesterday.
Sugito said that a survey on consumption patterns is now underway, necessary to recalibrate the existing inflation formula.
"We hope the new formula can be adopted next year," he told newsmen after a hearing with Commission X of the House of Representatives (DPR).
He admitted that the current inflation formula did not really reflect real conditions, due to major changes in the people's consumption patterns over the last 10 years.
Sugito denied last week that his agency had manipulated the computation of the country's inflation rates.
Many analysts have questioned the objectivity of the agency's inflation figures, which are still based on people's consumption patterns in 1990.
The current system for calculating the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is based on the prices of 224 consumer goods and services in the capitals of the country's 27 provinces, including Dili in East Timor.
The CPI for each city is the price index of a group of goods and services consumed by most households in the respective city, based on a survey on costs of living made in April 1990.
Sugito said yesterday that in the new system, components of goods and services, which will be used to determine the CPI, will be extended to between 300 and 400 items in order to ensure a more representative inflation figure.
At yesterday's hearing with Commission X, which is in charge of development planning, research and technology, Sugito reported a shortage of skilled personnel in his agency.
He said that the number of skilled staff in the statistics agency was continuing due to the retirement of it's senior officials.
"The number of new officials doesn't match that of retirees," he said, adding that the government's zero growth policy for the agency's staffing would affect not only the quality but also the quantity of its surveys and other data collection activities.
Sugito said that around 285 senior officials, mostly in important positions, will retire in the course of the 1995/1996 fiscal year. 245 other senior officials will take their retirement the following fiscal year, 237 others in 1997/1998 and around 400 people in 1998/1999. (hen)