Families of consumer price indices for different purposes. CPIs for sub-groups of population

Abstract

Differences in the structure of expenditure and in consumption patterns may lead to different inflation faced by different households. Therefore many users are asking for a family of indices that measure the variation of consumer prices for the population sub-groups. This papers deals with the main purposes of consumer price indices (CPIs) and the construction of those indices. It also examines the problems of their practical computation and gives some recommendations for improvements of the presently calculated CPIs for sub-groups of population.