Bermuda
Official title
Consumer Price Index.
Scope
The index is compiled monthly and covers about 87 per cent of all
private households in Bermuda with incomes between 200 and
1,499 dollars per week in 1982.
Official base
January 1985 = 100.
Source of weights
The weights and selected items were derived from a household
expenditure survey conducted in 1982, covering about
750 households with weekly incomes between 200 and 1,499
dollars at the time of the survey. The weights were not
adjusted to take into account price changes between
the survey and base periods.
Weights and composition
| Major groups
| Number of items
| Weights
| Approximate number of price quotations
|
| Food
| 111 | 181 | 2000
|
| Rent
| 1 | 218 | 420
|
| Clothing and footwear
| 37 | 60 | 200
|
| Tobacco and alcohol
| 4 | 26 | 80
|
| Fuel and light
| 2 | 45 | 2
|
| Furniture, furnishings, household equipment and operations
| 52 | 147 | 450
|
| Transport, foreign travel
| 15 | 171 | 85
|
| Education, recreation and reading
| 17 | 84 | 115
|
| Personal and medical care
| 9 | 68 | 400
|
| Total
| 248 | 1000 | 3752
|
Household consumption expenditure
Consumption expenditure for the purpose of the index includes all
cash or credit purchases for household consumption, plus current
transfers made on a regular basis for items such as insurance and
social security. Owner-occupied dwellings are included.
Income taxes and other direct taxes, savings and investments, and
repayments of loans and gifts are excluded.
Method of data collection
Prices are collected during personal visits of the staff of the
Statistical Department to the various reporting outlets and, when
necessary, prices are checked with supervisory staff at each
outlet. Prices for food items, household supplies, tobacco and
alcohol, personal care products, self-prescribed medicines and
medical supplies are obtained each month from 11 of the largest
supermarkets of the country. Quarterly price surveys are carried
out for those items whose prices tend to change more slowly, such
as motor cars, motorcycles, clothing and footwear, household
appliances, prescribed drugs, etc. Prices are ascertained once a
year for school fees, car insurance premiums, health
insurance premiums and car licensing fees. When necessary, the
pricing frequency is adjusted to keep abreast of rapidly
changing circumstances.
Housing
Owner-occupied dwellings are taken into account in the calculation of
the weight for the shelter component for the all-items index by making
an assessment of their annual rental equivalence. However, for pricing
purposes, changes in the cost of shelter are based purely on changes in
monthly market rentals of a cross-section of rented properties. No
attempt is made to monitor actual expenditures relating specifically to
owner-occupied dwellings such as mortgage interest rates, repairs, or
insurance, nor notional expenditures such as depreciation.
Specification of varieties
Particular varieties for pricing are selected within each sample
outlet. The most popular brand, type or size (the volume seller)
is selected for regular price collection on the advice of the
outlet's management.
Substitution, quality change, etc.
When the quality of an item changes, a method of linking is
used.
Seasonal items
No special account is taken of seasonal fluctuations in item
prices.
Computation
The index is computed according to the Laspeyres formula as a
weighted arithmetic average with fixed base, using weights
corresponding to 1982.
Organisation and publication
Ministry of Finance, Department of Statistics: Bermuda Annual
Digest
(Hamilton).
Idem: Bermuda Quarterly Digest of Statistics
.
Idem: Retail Price Index Reference Paper
(April 1986).