Russian Federation
Official title
Combined/Consolidated Consumer price index.
Scope
The index is computed and published monthly. It covers entire
population in the whole territory of the Russian Federation.
Official base
December of the previous year = 100. Statistics in this series
are available from 1991.
Sources of weights
CPI is computed using the weights derived from the previous year
household budget survey. The survey is conducted annually and
the weights are updated every year. The survey is two- stage
random sample survey with enumeration districts as primary and
households as secondary sampling units. Sample selection is
based on 1994 micro-census and covers 76 enumeration districts
(regions) and about 48,700 households, i.e. 0.1% of the total
number of households in the Russian Federation.
Weights and composition
| Major groups | Number of items | Weights | Approx. No. of price
quotation
|
| food | 100 | 51.9 | 100,000
|
| non-food | 201 | 32.1 | 180,000
|
| services | 81 | 16.0 | 120,000
|
| Total | 382 | 100.0 | 400,000
|
Classification is not fully adapted to the SNA classification of
Household Final Consumption.
Household consumption expenditure
Consumption expenditure refers to all money expenditures (both in
cash and on credit) used for purchasing consumer goods and
services no matter whether full payment for them was made during
the reporting period and whether they are intended for
consumption inside the household. Consumption expenditure
covers expenditures on food, alcoholic beverages, non-food
items and expenditures on services.
Sample selection
Selection of goods: The price list includes goods and services
commonly consumed by the Russian population. The choice was made
on the bases of item's relative importance in the household
consumption, its availability on the market for a longer period
of time and how representative their prices are with regard to
the price fluctuation for items not included in the list. Goods and
services which are not in great demand, second-hand goods and those
which are not always available were not included in the price list
but their weights were proportionally distributed among similar goods
and services included in the list.
Selection of localities: Prices are collected in 89 regions and
350 district (administrative- territorial units) centres selected
taking into account their geographical location and
representation of the social-economic situation of the region.
More than 30,000 outlets and establishment in service sector in
350 towns were selected on the basis of their location (in the
centre of the town or outskirts) and level of turnover (large,
medium and small). Outlets and establishments in trade and
services sectors, of all types of ownership (public, municipal,
private, mixed, associations, joint stock companies, etc.) and
involved in all types of trade are represented in the sample.
Method of data collection
Prices are collected by specially trained price collectors from
the 15th to the 25th day of each month. For each item, once a
month in each town, at least three prices which are comparable
with the ones from the previous month, are collected. Therefore,
the total number of price quotation for each item is around 1,000
throughout the country.
Price collection does not include
discounts except they are available to all population groups.
Housing
Payment for housing consists of payment for housing and municipal
services.
Tariffs for housing services are computed for one
square metre of apartment. For persons living in house/apartment
in public and municipal ownership, these are payments for housing
and rent, and for those living in house-apartment in private and
cooperative ownership, these are payments for technical services.
Municipal services are heating (price for heating one square
meter), supply of cold and hot water, sewerage, gas (paid by
person) and electricity (kWh). Payments for municipal services
are independent of housing ownership form.
Property tax paid by owners of private and cooperative apartments
is not included in the index.
Price collection at the primary and secondary housing market is conducted every quarter
without including the data in CPI.
Specification of varieties
Item specifications are broadly defined. Detail specifications
(trademark, model, origin and all other qualitative
characteristics) are recorded during the process of price
registration.
Substitution, quality changes
The price levels of goods and services with certain
characteristics are collected in a given outlet from month to
month. When a product temporarily or permanently disappears from
a selected outlet and a new quality appears it is required to
replace the old item with a new one.
The most widely used methods of treating the missing items are the following:
- the item is replaced with a same one from another outlet;
- the last observed price is carried forward; this method is used
when prices are unchanged or increase insignificantly, and for no
more than two months.
- the item which is disappearing is replaced with a similar one
in the same outlet;
- the price is imputed on the basis of the price movement of the
other items in the same group.
The choice of one or another method depends on the supply of
information, specific nature of the condition of sale, market
shortages and other factors.
New product appearing on the market are included in the index
when price information about two consecutive months are
available.
Seasonal items
The influence of seasonal factor on the index is assessed by
computing the index that excludes seasonal items (fruit and
vegetables) which are under sharp swings in the level of price
change. During the off-season, the price is imputed on the base
of the price index of the group to which that item belongs.
Computation
Individual price indexes for each item in each town are computed
as a ratio of the average comparable price of the item in the
current month with the average comparable price in the preceding
month.
Individual price indexes on federal level are computed as
weighted average of individual regional price indexes and
quantitative proportion of the population of a given region in
the total population.
General CPI on federal level is computed by multiplying the
individual regional indexes and corresponding weights
representing the structure of consumption expenditure of the
population in Russia.
CPI is computed using modified (chain) Laspeyers formula. This
formula is used because the classic Laspeyers does not reflect
situation in Russia where dynamics of price changes is unstable.
Other information
CPIs for households with different income levels (by income
deciles) are also computed and published monthly
Organisation and publication
The Department of Price and Finance Statistics, Goskomstat of
Russia is responsible for methodology on CPI
The main interregional Centre for Statistical Information
Processing and Dissemination, Goskomat is responsible for
calculation of CPI
Publications:
About Consumer Price Index
, Social-economic situation in Russian
Federation
; Russian newspaper
; The Russian Federation in figures
;
The Russian Statistical Yearbook
, Prices in Russia
Average prices are also published.