An Internationally Comparable Research On China's Consumer Price Index

CPI may be the most important statistics of the regular single statistics production of national statistical agencies. Small differences in CPI methodology can have serious economic impact. In accordance with international guidelines for the preparation of accurate and comparable CPI is particularly important.For the issue of CPI international comparability, on the basis of existing research this article research the following four areas.First of all, this article study the international norms of CPI methodology and its application The newest international norms of CPI methodology are'CPI Manual: Theory and Practice (2004)'and its supplement manual'Practical Guide to Compiling Consumer Price Indices: A supplementary handbook to the International Manual on CPIs (2008)'.'CPI Manual: Theory and Practice (2004)'detailed description CPI'concepts and scope, expenditures weights and their sources, sampling, price collection, adjusting for quality change and calculating consumer price indices in practice.Secondly, on the basis of system study of CPI international norms and comparative study CPI compilation method in China and abroad with international norms .The study found that although China's CPI in many parts are consonant with international norms and standards, such as the choice of elementary aggregates, price type are actual transaction prices, the calculation of price indices for elementary aggregates. However, in some ways there is a gap, mainly in the following areas: the difference between the names; the classification used in the compilation of indices; the treatment of owner-occupied housing; and expenditure weight sources; the sample survey methods; the quality adjustment methods.The third step is to precede in-depth study of the CPI on two fronts. First, use of cluster analysis methods to make international comparability of CPI methodology of empirical research. Second, use trend simulation to evaluate the accuracy of the data of CPI.Finally, based on the international comparability of the theoretical study and empirical research, this paper proposed some advices to improve the international comparability of the CPI measures. Including: replacement the name of CPI; adjustment classification survey to determine the appropriate weight of the item; to improve the survey methodology, to enhance the representativeness of the sample; improve the methods of treatment of owner-occupied housing, reasonable definition of owner-occupied housing; application quality adjustment methods; strengthening statistical data quality management, improve the quality of statistical data CPI.