Martinique
Official title
Indice des prix à la consommation (Consumer Price Index).
Scope
The index is compiled monthly and relates to urban households with
average income and expenditure, but including only households whose
head is a wage earner or salaried employee in the non-agricultural
private and public sectors, excluding the armed forces.
Official base
1979 = 100.
Source of weights
The weights were calculated on the basis of data from various sources,
such as administrative records and production and trade statistics,
supplemented by private consumption expenditure patterns for France and
Réunion.
Weights and composition
| Major groups
| Number of items
| Weights
| Approximate number of price quotations
|
| Food
| 57 | 31.66 | ...
|
| Clothing and footwear
| 24 | 8.79 | ...
|
| Housing:
|
| Fuel and light
| 4 | 4.33 | ...
|
| Rent
| 1 | 9.96 | ...
|
| Furniture, household goods, maintenance and other services
| 25 | 10.83 | ...
|
| Personal and medical care
| 12 | 8.58 | ...
|
| Transport
| 12 | 16.44 | ...
|
| Education and recreation
| 31 | 9.41 | ...
|
| Total
| 166 | 100.00 | ...
|
Household consumption expenditure
Consumption expenditure for the purpose of the index comprises all the
important goods and services purchased for consumption by the index
population including expenditure on domestic and administrative
services. It excludes direct taxes, building costs considered as
investment, home-produced goods consumed by households, the value of
owner-occupied dwellings, second-hand purchases, social security
contributions and insurance premium payments.
Method of data collection
Prices are collected by agents from about 277 retail outlets, markets
and service establishments in two main urban areas: Fort-de-France and
Schoelcher. Prices are obtained each month for most items. Prices of
fresh food, namely fish, fruit and vegetables, are ascertained twice a
month from retail shops and weekly from market places. Prices for
some items are ascertained every three months.
The prices used to calculate the index are the retail prices
actually paid.
Housing
Rent quotations are obtained every six months from a sample of 144
rented dwellings in Fort-de-France and Schoelcher.
Specification of varieties
Broad specifications are given. The price collector chooses the most
popular product in each retail outlet for regular price collection.
Substitution, quality change, etc.
If a product is no longer available, it is substituted by another
product with approximately the same quality. If the quality of the
substitute is not directly comparable with that of the old
product, adjustments are made for quality changes whenever possible.
Seasonal items
Seasonal fluctuations in the prices of fresh fish, fruit and vegetables
are taken into account by varying the items and item weights within
monthly baskets of constant group weights.
Computation
The index is computed according to the Laspeyres formula as a weighted
arithmetic average with fixed base.
Price relatives for the current and base periods are used to compute
item indices. Relatives of average prices are calculated for most
items, but for heterogeneous varieties, averages of price relatives are
computed.
Other information
Detailed sub-groups are published for this series.
Organisation and publication
INSEE, Service régional de la Martinique, Bulletin statistique de la
Martinique
(Fort-de-France).
Idem: Sélection mensuelle de statistiques
.
INSEE, Service interrégional Antilles-Guyane:
L'indice des prix de la Martinique, base 100 en 1979; Méthodes,
bilan 1979-1984 et perspectives
, Les dossiers Antilles-Guyane
(Fort-de-France, June 1985).