New ECLAC publication on statistical topics

ECLAC Statistical Briefings is a new bimonthly publication that presents short monographic articles on statistical topics. This Bulletin is prepared by the Statistics Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The first issue, The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the compilation of consumer price indices, presents the different measures that have been taken by the national statistical offices (NSOs) responsible for compiling their country’s CPI and the effects of these measures on price collection, with a view to improving price estimation while the health emergency continues.

A consumer price index (CPI) is the official indicator providing timely information on inflation in an economy. A straightforward way to understand the nature of a CPI is to imagine the average household shopping basket, containing all the goods and services needed for a month. Individual prices vary from month to month, and the CPI measures this change, which is what we call inflation.

In the health emergency resulting from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, calculating the CPI is challenging for national statistical offices (NSOs) because they are prevented from carrying out the usual price collection procedures.

ECLAC Statistical Briefings is published in Spanish (Temas estadísticos de la CEPAL) and English.