Why in news?
- The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is releasing Price Movement of selected Sub-Groups/Groups of Consumer Price Index (CPI).
- The Price data are usually collected from selected 1114 urban markets and selected 1181 villages through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster.
National Statistical Office (NSO)
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation hadmerged the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) into National Statistical Office (NSO).
The Statistical Wing, comprising the NSO with constituents as the CSO and the NSSO, to be an integral part of the main ministry.
- NSO would be headed by Secretary, Statistics and Programme Implementation, with various divisions reporting to the Secretary through Director Generals (DGs).
- The CSO headed by a DG brings out macro-economic data like economic (GDP) growth data, industrial production and inflation.
- The NSSO conducts large-scale surveys and brings out reports on health, education, household expenditure and other social and economic indicators. The NSSO and the CSO were functioning independently.
Functions of NSO
- NSO is responsible for conduct of large-scale sample surveys in diverse fields on All India basis.
- Primarily data are collected through nation-wide household surveys on various socio-economic subjects, Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), etc.
- Besides these surveys, NSO collects data on rural and urban prices and plays a significant role in the improvement of crop statistics through supervision of the area enumeration and crop estimation surveys of the State agencies.
- It also maintains a frame of urban area units for use in sample surveys in urban areas.
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
- Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the measure of changes in the price level of a basket of consumer goods and services bought by households.
- It is calculated by taking price changes for each item in the predetermined basket of goods and averaging them.
- The CPI measures the average change in prices over time that consumers pay for a basket of goods and services, commonly known as inflation.
- Changes in the CPI are used to assess price changes associated with the cost of living; the CPI is one of the most frequently used statistics for identifying periods of inflation or deflation.
- The weighted average of the prices of goods and services that approximates an individual’s consumption patterns is used to calculate CPI.
- The Consumer Price Index or CPI is calculated by multiplying 100 to the fraction of the cost price of the current period and the base period. CPI = (Cost of basket in current period/ Cost of basket in base period) x 100
