Canada
Statistics Canada publishes the CPI on a monthly basis. It is obtained by comparing through time, the cost of a fixed basket of commodities purchased by consumers. Since the basket contains commodities of unchanging or equivalent quantity and quality, the index reflects only pure price movements.
Between 1913 and 1926 both the Department of Labour and the Dominion Bureau of Statistics (Statistics Canada) each produced separate CPI's, the former using a highly restrictive target population and the latter using the total population of Canada as the target. In the early 1920s, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics used the data collected by the Department of Labour to construct a monthly series beginning in January 1914. The present CPI series are descended from that set of indexes. Some component indexes in the CPI begin with the date they were introduced into the CPI. Data series at the level of urban centres were introduced in January 1971; province-level data series exist since September 1978.
Price movements of the goods and services represented in the CPI are weighted according to the relative importance of commodities in the total expenditures of consumers.
Samples in the price survey are obtained from a judgmental selection of geographical areas, representative commodities, and types and locations of retail outlets. There are about 600 commodities specified to represent the price movement in 168 basic commodity classes. Sample commodities are chosen on the basis of representativeness and expected continuous availability.
Over ninety percent of the price quotes used in the construction of the CPI are collected by personal visits to selected retail outlets.
Generally, factors affecting the quality of the CPI include: - the size and composition of the price samples of commodities and outlets - the accuracy of the expenditure estimates used to assign weights - the frequency and speed of updating of the contents and weights of the CPI basket - the effectiveness of error detection and correction, and imputation methods for missing data - the application of appropriate methods of adjusting for quality change of commodities in the CPI sample.
The CPI is believed to be sufficiently accurate for most practical purposes. In general accuracy is better at the Canada level for any product index in the CPI compared to the same index at the province or city level. Also, accuracy is better at the all-items or major component levels of the CPI compared to individual product indexes.
Read more about this topic: Consumer Price Index By Country
Famous quotes containing the word canada:
“Canadians look down on the United States and consider it Hell. They are right to do so. Canada is to the United States what, in Dante’s scheme, Limbo is to Hell.”
—Irving Layton (b. 1912)
“Though the words Canada East on the map stretch over many rivers and lakes and unexplored wildernesses, the actual Canada, which might be the colored portion of the map, is but a little clearing on the banks of the river, which one of those syllables would more than cover.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This universal exhibition in Canada of the tools and sinews of war reminded me of the keeper of a menagerie showing his animals’ claws. It was the English leopard showing his claws.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)