Consumer Price Index in Oman shows upward trend

Muscat: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Oman showed an upward trend from 69.7 points in 2004 to 104.9 points in 2017, according to the latest bulletin of the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
During the period between 2011 and 2017, the magnitude of the change in the index was highest in 2011, with 4.1 per cent, and the lowest in 2015, when it was 0.1 per cent.
This was revealed in the 13th edition of CPI, which provides an overview of consumer price-based inflation and the methodology used to calculate the same, and published by the NCSI.
At the governorate level, the Governorate of Dhofar recorded the highest CPI in the Sultanate between 2011 and 2017. Dhofar recorded 106.8 points in 2017, while the Governorate of North Al Batinah recorded the lowest figure, reaching 96.4 points in 2011.
In the first section, the publication shows the CPI concept of measuring changes in the prices of goods and services of the household consumption basket during a particular period, called the comparison period, in relation to another period called the base period.
It also indicates the use of the CPI in economic and social analysis, policy-making and study of the relationship among wages or salaries, and the cost of living. It also clarifies real changes or the relationship between money and what is exchanged with it as goods and services.
This section also gives an overview of the evolution of CPI in the Sultanate, which has seen many phases of development ever since its inception in 1972.
The second section of the publication deals with the methodology of the CPI and factors taken into consideration, such as weights, which represent the structure of expenditure based on the household expenditure and income survey. These weights include consumer spending, which includes a large number of items, goods and services.
It is difficult to deal with all of them to choose a group of goods and services, which represents the consumer basket and is considered a representative of the true patterns of consumption in the society.
The second section also deals with geographical area, sources and periodicity of price collection.