Algeria (Algiers)
Official title
Indice des prix à la consommation (Consumer Price Index).
Scope
The index is compiled monthly and relates to all households
of all sizes and all socio-professional categories in Algiers.
Official base
1982 = 100.
Source of weights
The weights were derived from the results of a national household
expenditure survey conducted between March 1979 and March 1980, covering
a sample of 8,208 households throughout Algeria divided into six housing
areas, five economic zones and 20 socio-professional categories. The
index relates to all households (except single person households) of all
sizes and all socio-professional categories in the town of Algiers. The
articles selected were taken from a census of varieties and services
consumed by households conducted in 1982. The index covers 716
varieties selected on the basis of criteria such as annual expenditure,
frequency of expenditure, use. The weights of the varieties are
calculated on the basis of annual expenditure in 1979. The coverage
rate of the index (in terms of consumption expenditure) is 93 per cent.
Weights and composition
| Major groups
| Number of items
| Weights
| Approximate number of price quotations
|
| Food
| 56 | 552.4 | 9919
|
| Clothing and footwear
| 59 | 70.6 | 709
|
| Housing fuel and light
| 9 | 72.5 | 95
|
| Furniture and furnishings
| 43 | 55.0 | 152
|
| Medical care
| 26 | 26.5 | 6
|
| Transport and communication
| 20 | 96.1 | 47
|
| Education and recreation
| 20 | 42.3 | 28
|
| Other goods and services
| 23 | 84.6 | 128
|
| Total
| 256 | 1000.0 | 11084
|
Household consumption expenditure
The consumption expenditure taken into account to establish the
weights includes the goods and services recorded during the survey
on household expenditure. The following are excluded:
investments, property owned, national insurance and pension fund
contributions, trading licences, income tax and other direct
taxes, insurance premiums, remission of funds, donations and
similar payments.
Method of data collection
Price quotations are obtained periodically by agents in ten
geographic sectors of the town of Algiers from a sample of
outlets (public and private) in accordance with a survey programme
established for each group of goods and services. Declared or posted
prices are recorded. The agent does not take account of official prices
where they existe nor of sales or discount prices. On average almost
450 varieties are investigated each month and approximately 11,000
prices are processed each month. Fresh fruit and vegetables and fresh
fish are surveyed three times a week at ten public and private retail
outlets (markets); meat, poultry and eggs are surveyed twice a month at
36 public and private retail outlets. Prices for clothing are recorded
every four months. Information regarding water, electricity, gas,
education, transport and communications is obtained once a year and
information concerning medical care is obtained twice a year.
Housing
The agents record the price of the rent plus additional
expenses once a year for dwellings with three rooms, kitchen and
bathroom; for the public sector they consult organisations
responsible for managing buildings and for the private sector
they consult households. The index for the rent
group is
obtained by combining the public sector index with the private
sector index.
Owner-occupied dwellings are not taken into account in the
computation of the index.
Specification of varieties
A census of varieties of goods and services consumed by households was
conducted in 1982. On this basis of the results, almost 2,000 varieties
were processed (specification, definition of the item, calculation of
average price) for the index. Each variety has detailed specifications
and a description of the quality, the manufacture, the make, the unit,
etc.
Substitution, quality change, etc.
Changes in the quality of an article and the appearance of new articles
on the market are not taken into account in the computation of the
index. If an item disapears from the market it is replaced by a similar
item or its weight is redistributed over the remaining items in the same
sub-group.
Seasonal items
Due to the seasonal nature of their marketing, fresh fruit and
vegetables receive special treatment: using a monthly
high-season basket, an index is calculated which compares the
costs of the current month's basket with the cost for the same
month in the reference year (1982). The base prices of the
varieties in the basket are monthly as are the weights. The
comparison of the indices of different months does not indicate a
(relative) pure variation in prices, but the ratio between the
variations of prices for each month.
Computation
The index is computed according to the Laspeyres formula as a
weighted arithmetic average with fixed base, the weights
corresponding to 1979.
The price relative for each item is calculated by dividing the
average price of the current period by the average price of the
base period. Average prices are simple arithmetic means of all
price quotations obtained.
Other information
At present a national index is computed by observing prices in a sample
of 18 towns and villages. This has been calculated on a monthly basis
since January 1989.
Organisation and publication
Office national des statistiques: Statistiques
(quarterly)
(Algiers).
Idem: Données statistiques
(monthly).
Idem: Collections statistiques
(annual).