PBS unveils new methodology

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Tuesday published its methodology of price statistics with base year 2015-16 following the re-basing of National Accounts from the base of 2005-06 to 2015-16.

The PBS document, placed on the website of the bureau, said the key feature of the new base was the introduction of Rural Consumer Price Index (RCPI) for the first time in the history of the country. The old base CPI was urban-biased, and was criticised for not including rural markets, while the new base CPI included urban as well as rural markets of the country.

In the new base, Rural Price Index (RPI), Urban Consumer Price Index (UCPI) and National CPI would be published against a single number of CPI under the old base.

Furthermore, compared to the old methodology, which focused on assigning equal weights to large and small cities, in the new base, population weights have been introduced, thus cities would get weights, according to their population.