"Every completion of the SBH (Cost of Living Survey, red), it can be a moment to change the base year of the CPI (Consumer Price Index, red) and NTP (Farmer Exchange Rate, ed)," said Bustanul Arifin, Professor of Economics and Agriculture, University of the University Lampung, who is also the Chairperson of the Statistics Community Forum, was a guest speaker at Building 1, 10th Floor BPS, (28/1) Bustanul's attendance was related to the Socialization of the CPI and NTP Weighing Diagram for the Basic Year 2018 conducted by BPS under the Deputy for Distribution and Service Statistics.
CPI and NTP are two strategic data produced by BPS. "The CPI will reflect inflation figures, this is an early warning of economic growth in terms of expenditure," said Kecuk Suhariyanto, Head of BPS, in his remarks. Changes to the base year, from 2012 to 2018, are indeed regularly carried out by statistical offices in the world. "There is a change in the consumption patterns of society, technology and lifestyles now making there are new commodities that must be included and some are discarded because they are not representative," continued Kecuk.
Commodities in the calculation of CPI this time reached 835 commodities, which previously numbered 859. "As many as 101 commodities were eliminated, but there were new commodities such as LEDs, daycare, photo studio services, herbal medicines, stroller, and others," explained Nurul Hasanuddin, Director of BPS Price Statistics, who is also one of the speakers. "This change is comprehensive, covering commodities, samples, locations and cities," said Faisal Basri, an economist who is also a guest speaker. This interactive discussion was moderated by Yunita Rusanti, Deputy of Statistics for Distribution and Services of BPS.
Coverage of new CPI counting cities increased by eight, from 82 cities to 90. With a sample that increased from 136 thousand to 141,600, the expenditure group increased from seven to 11. For NTP itself also significantly increased the number of samples, from 46 thousand to 198 thousand . "Understanding NTP comprehensively is needed, but this needs to be added with other data and info, such as measures of poverty, inequality, or rural inflation," concluded Bustanul.
