Prices: Consumer Price Indices

The FAOSTAT monthly Food CPI and General CPI database was based on the ILO CPI data until December 2014. In 2014, IMF-ILO-FAO agreed to transfer global CPI data compilation from ILO to IMF. Upon agreement, CPIs for all items and its subcomponents originates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) for countries not covered by the IMF. However, due to a limited time coverage from IMF and UNSD for a number of countries, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Central Bank of Western African States (BCEAO), Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), UNdata, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the national statistics offices websites databases are used for filling the missing data of Food and General CPI. The FAO CPI dataset for all items (or General CPI) and the Food CPI, consists of a complete and consistent set of time series from January 2000 onwards. Data gaps on monthly Food CPI and General CPI are filled using statistical estimation procedures to have full data coverage for all countries for Food CPI and for General CPI. These indices measure the price change between the current and reference periods of the average basket of goods and services purchased by households. The General CPI is typically used to measure and monitor inflation, set monetary policy targets, index social benefits such as pensions and unemployment benefits, and to escalate thresholds and credits in the income tax systems and wages in public and private wage contracts. The FAOSTAT monthly Food CPI inflation rates are annual year-over-year inflation or percentage change over corresponding month of the previous year. The regional and subregional Food and General CPI, and the aggregated Food and General CPI at the different income levels (High-income economies, Low-income economies, Lower-middle-income economies and Upper-middle-income economies) are calculated using two different statistical methods: 1- A weighted average of Food and General CPI values of countries and territories within each region using the weights of Household final consumption expenditure (including non-profit institutions serving households) in 2015 in USD at constant prices of 2015. Household final consumption expenditure is available at https://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama 2- Median of Food and General CPI values of countries and territories within each region. The Food CPI inflation rates for regional, subregional, and income groups are calculated by first computing, at the country level, the monthly percentage change between two consecutive years. These country-level inflation rates are then aggregated to the group level using two alternative methods: the median and the weighted average, whose weights are based on household final consumption expenditure at 2015 constant prices.