Online Program

Methodological Challenges in the Development of a New Survey Design for the Canadian Consumer Price Index

Keywords: consumer price index, sample design, sample allocation, sample coordination

The CPI is currently undergoing a major enhancement project. One objective of this five-year project is to improve the sample by increasing its size and implementing a new survey design in order to make it more representative of the prices paid by Canadians for their goods and services. The plan is to develop a three-stage design, where the three stages are geographical areas, outlets and products. Challenges related to each stage will be discussed, as well as different constraints to take into consideration when developing a sample allocation and sample coordination schemes for a consumer price index.