On the treatment of seasonal commodities in CPI: The israeli experience

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Finkel, Yoel^{; *} | Artsev, Yevgeny

Affiliations: Central Bureau of Statistics, 66 Kanfei Nesharim, Corner Bachi St., Jerusalem 95464, Israel

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Tel.: +972 2 6592213; Fax: +972 26522319; E-mail: yoel@cbs.gov.il.

Abstract: The treatment of seasonal products in a Producer or Consumer Price Index is presented in Chapter 22 of the new international manuals on PPI/CPI. In this paper we attempt to execute many of the solutions proposed in measurement of seasonal products by inserting “real” market data from the Israeli CPI. The paper has three objectives: (1) to summarize Chapter 22 on the treatment of seasonal products; (2) to describe some of the methods used in the Israeli CPI to overcome seasonal fluctuations (and bias) in a month to month index, (3) to compare the results based on real CPI data with those in the manuals that re based on artificial data set.

Keywords: CPI measures, seasonal commodities

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-2004-21202

Journal: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 95-113, 2004