| Major groups | Number of items | Weights | Approximate number of price quotations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco | 118 | 2877 | 2346 |
| Clothing and footwear | 54 | 898 | 324 |
| Rent, fuel and light | 12 | 1.698 | 359 |
| Furniture, furnishing and household equipment and operation | 64 | 756 | 414 |
| Medical care | 28 | 363 | 168 |
| Transport and communication | 45 | 2389 | 91 |
| Recreation and education | 43 | 708 | 258 |
| Miscellaneous goods and services | 19 | 311 | 114 |
| All Items | 383 | 10000 | 4074 |
Goods from own production were valued at wholesale prices and included in expenditure. For own-dwelling occupiers, an imputed rent was estimated and used in calculating the weights. Durable goods credit purchases were considered as normal purchases and the full price of the items was taken into account.
Second-hand purchases were also taken into account at the price bought. Trade-in of used goods and in part payment for new ones were only considered in the case of cars for which only the net difference between the used car and the new purchase was used in calculating expenditure on cars.
Contributions to social insurance and pension funds were excluded from the expenditure used for derivating the weights. Insurance associated with specific consumer goods was included. Expenditure on health care was included only if paid directly by a member of the household. Income taxes and other direct taxes, life insurance payments and other transfers of money to other households were also excluded. However, purchases of gifts given to other households were included. :SAMP. The criteria for selecting an item for price collection were: its availability on the retail market, its share in total expenditure and quality, unit of measurement, variety and other specifications being available. The weights of items not priced were distributed proportionately among similar items that are priced.
As no point-of-purchase survey was carried out, the outlets where price data are obtained were selected empirically so as to include a representative sample of stores from which the index population make their purchases. The outlets selected were restricted to the three largest towns, namely Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca. :meth. Prices for each type of item are obtained from two outlets in each town by trained enumerators from the Department of Statistics and Research.
The price collection frequency varies according to the item. Prices for fresh fruit and vegetables are collected once a week (every Thursday) from the municipal market, while for other commodities prices are obtained once a month (on the Thursday closest to the 15th of the month). For price controlled items (such as fuel, electricity, telephone, water etc.) data are obtained from invoices issued by the organisations concerned.
The prices refer to actual prices paid, thus discounts and sales are taken into account. Second hand purchases are not priced. Black market prices and credit terms are not taken into consideration. Import prices are reflected in the respective retail prices. Trade in of used goods for part payment for a new item is disregarded, only the new item is priced.
The rent index is computed as follows: first, the current rent per dwelling for each town is divided by the coresponding average rent at the base period (1992=100). Then the sum of the price relatives is divided by the number of dwellings in each town. These are then averaged for the 3 towns using the same weights as for all other items in the Indes (i.e. Nicosia 5, Limassol 3, Larnaca 2).
Owner-occupied houses were taken into account in calculating the overall rent weight by estimating an imputed rent. In computing the rent index, only the rents actually paid are taken into account; the imputed rents are disregarded on the assumption that their evolution is similar to that of rent actually paid.
A substitution is made by linking the prices of the new and old items, by taking a theoretical base price for the substitute item. For this, it is necessary to obtain prices for both the current and previous months.
The index is directly computed at the national level. A weighted average price is computed for the three towns using weights, Nicosia 5, Limassol 3 and Larnaca 2, which approximately reflect their respective populations. The price relative is calculated by dividing the average price of the current period by the average price of the preceding period.
Monthly Economic Indicators.
Idem: Economic Report
.
Idem: Statistical Abstract
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Idem: Labour Statistics
.