Volume 1: Consumer Price Indices

Grenada

Official title

Consumer Price Index.

Scope

The index is computed monthly and covers all households throughout the country.

Official base

1987 = 100.

Source of weights

The weights and selected items were derived from a household expenditure survey conducted in 1987 among a random sample of 900 households throughout the country. The weights of items not selected for pricing were either distributed over similar items within the sub-group or grouped together into a single other-category to be represented by the most important item within the other category.

Weights and composition

Major groups	Number of items	Weights	Approximate number of price quotations
Food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco:	149	...	569
Food	...	38.7	...
Alcoholic drinks and tobacco	...	2.0	...
Clothing and footwear	72	5.2	72
Rent, Household operations:	20	...	30
Rent	...	11.9	...
Household operations	...	5.4	...
Fuel and light, Furniture, furnishings and household equipment:	62	...	169
Fuel and light	...	3.9	...
Furniture, furnishings and household equipment	...	8.3	...
Transport	17	9.1	20
Personal and medical care	30	8.6	139
Education, recreation and reading	24	4.6	30
Miscellaneous	10	2.3	10
Total	384	100.0	1039

Household consumption expenditure

Included are home-produced goods, gifts, life insurance payment, credit purchases. Excluded are income taxes and other direct taxes, interest on loans and bank charges, hire-purchase payments, donations and church contributions.

Method of data collection

Prices of fresh meat, fish, fruit and vegetables are collected each week, on Fridays in St. George's and on Saturdays in Grenville and Gouyave.

Supermarket products, clothing, household items, fuel and light, and personal care items are priced each month. Rent quotations, insurance payments, travel expenses, prices for transportation, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses are ascertained each quarter.

The prices of items collected each month or quarter are obtained during the last week of the current month, following a fixed order every day starting on Mondays with supermarkets, pharmacies, etc. Officers from the Statistical Department collect all prices by field visits, or in some instances by telephone; e.g. doctors' fees, telephone charges, electricity charges etc. In the fruit and vegetable markets where units of measurements vary, e.g. bundles, heaps and numbers, kitchen scales are used to estimate the price for a standard measure.

Sale prices are used if they become permanent; if the price of the commodity is returned to its original price at the end of the sale, it is not used. Hire-purchase prices and discount prices are not used. Second-hand goods are not priced because there are no established markets. No special treatment is given to import prices. The prices used are those at which consumers make their purchases at the specified outlets.

Housing

Rent quotations are obtained each quarter from a sample of two- and three-bedroom dwellings. The quotations used for rent are also taken to represent owner-occupied housing. The weights for owner-occupied housing are combined with those of rented dwellings.

Specification of varieties

The point-of-purchase survey was incorporated in the household expenditure survey, in which respondents were asked to indicate the outlets where they made their purchases.

The questionnaire provided information on the brand and type for each item purchased, from which the most popular brands were selected for pricing in the outlets chosen. Visits were made to the outlets and detailed specifications were obtained, including the quality, size, country of origin and variety.

Substitution, quality change, etc.

A quality change is not treated as an increase in price; instead, the last price of the old quality item is kept constant for three months and then a new quality item is introduced.

New products are included in the basket at the time a new household expenditure survey is taken, approximately once every five years.

If a given type or quality disappears from the market, the last price of the specified item is held constant for three months. If the item does not reappear in the fourth month, a similar item, whose price has been collected for the past three months, is then introduced into the index.

Seasonal items

Whenever a commodity is not available on the market for at least three weeks of a month, it is treated as being a seasonal item.

When fresh fish is not available on the market, the movement in the price of fresh meat is used.

All items in the fresh vegetables and starchy food group are considered as seasonal except onions, Irish potatoes, garlic, bananas and plantains. This group is treated in a different way from fresh fish since the items are generally not out of the market for more than three months. Therefore, the last available price is kept constant until the item returns to the market.

Except for bananas, fresh fruit are considered seasonal and are treated in the same way as fresh vegetables, except for oranges and grapefruits, for which concentrated juice is used as a substitute.

Computation

The index is computed according to the Laspeyres formula as a weighted arithmetic average with fixed base, using weights corresponding to the base period.

Prices are averaged using the simple arithmetic method; the relatives are obtained by dividing the current average price by the previous average price.

Other information

Detailed sub-group indices are published.

Organisation and publication

Ministry of Finance. Statistical Department, Annual Abstract of Statistics, (St. Georges).

Government Printer Government Gazette.