Sudan
Official title
Retail Price Index.
Scope
The index is compiled monthly and covers households with six members and
with an annual income of between 300 and 500 pounds in 1967-68.
Official base
January 1970 = 100.
Source of weights
The weights and selected items were derived from a household expenditure
survey conducted in 1967-68 in Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman,
among a random sample of 1,500 households with six members and with an
annual income of between 300 and 500 pounds.
Weights and composition
| Major groups
| Number of items
| Weights
| Approximate number of price quotations
|
| Food and tobacco
| 31 | 66.5 | ...
|
| Housing:
|
| Rent, fuel, light and water
| 5 | 12.4 | ...
|
| Clothing and footwear
| 22 | 5.9 | ...
|
| Miscellaneous
| 12 | 15.2 | ...
|
| Total
| 70 | 100.0 | ...
|
Household consumption expenditure
Not available.
Method of data collection
Prices are collected from selected retail stores and service
establishments in Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman. Prices for
most items are collected by agents on Thursday each week. Price data
for electricity, gas, education and transportation are collected
directly from the authorities. Costs of medical care are based on
doctors' fees and the price of one selected medical product.
The prices used in the calculation of the index are the normal
prices paid. Sale and discount prices are not taken into
account.
Housing
Basic rent quotations come from a survey undertaken in December
1969. A rent survey is conducted only occasionally as rents do
not change frequently.
Specification of varieties
Not available.
Substitution, quality change, etc.
Not available.
Seasonal items
The price quotations are the current prices, which are not adjusted
for any seasonal fluctuations.
Computation
The index is computed according to the Laspeyres formula as a
weighted arithmetic average with fixed base, using weights
corresponding to the period 1967-68.
In computing item indices, the relatives of average prices for the
current and base periods are used. Average prices are the simple
arithmetic averages of the prices obtained from the three towns.
Other information
New series relating to low-, middle- and high-income group families are
now computed (base January 1988 = 100), but the relevant methodological
information was not available in the ILO at the time the present volume
was published.
Organisation and publication
The index is compiled by the Department of Statistics (Khartoum).
The figures published by the International Labour Office are
received directly from the Department of Statistics, Khartoum.
They do not appear in national publications.