561 – SPEED: Advances in Survey Research Methodology, Part 2A
How Can a Clothing Price Index Be Enhanced – Statistics Canada’s Recent Experience
Krista MacIsaac
Statistics Canada
Jean-Sébastien Provençal
Statistics Canada
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) produced by Statistics Canada is an indicator of the change in price in price for commercial goods and services. It is commonly used as a proxy for inflation in Canada. The CPI collects the price of the same set of products each month to produce an estimate of the pure price movement. However, the products available to consumers are constantly changing so the price collected must be adapted to accommodate for these changes. The clothing and footwear component of the CPI can be very challenging in this regard due to the rapid change of clothing products as a result of fashion trends and the evolution of consumer shopping patterns over time. This paper will give an overview of two initiatives that were recently conducted at Statistics Canada to address these issues. The first part looks at the coverage of the sample, in terms of the types of stores where products are priced, before and after a recent sample enhancement. The second part of this paper examines the use of quality adjustment measures that are used to compensate for changes in product quality over time.