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NBS to add 10,000 CPI survey locations

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-09 15:16

China will add 10,000 new consumer price index (CPI) survey locations in an effort to make the statistics more reliable.

Liu Jianwei, vice dean with the department of urban social and economic survey of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday that it is planning to have a total of 60,000 survey spots.

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Because of recent criticism of how China calculates its CPI, the bureau invited journalists to see how it calculated May's number after collecting and processing nearly 800 trillion consumer price figures from China's 31 provinces. The results will be released Wednesday.

Ma Jiantang, head of the NBS previously said the bureau is trying to eliminate the public's "mysterious impression" of China's CPI statistic.

Currently, the NBS has 3,000 people who gather prices from almost 600 items of commodities and services from roughly 50,000 survey spots at more than 550 counties and cities across the country, said Liu.

"Price collectors visit markets regularly, making efforts to control errors within a narrow scope that will not effect the statistical results," said Liu.

As a significant economic figure, the country's CPI calculation is based on the bureaus own calculations not each provinces reported data.

NBS's price collectors conduct sampling at retail stores, open fairs, and service networks at fixed times and places in each selected city or district, according to Liu.

Every month figures are transmitted via an internal computer system to a collection team within each province. It is their job to then inspect and transfer statistical results to the NBS.

The NBS conducts logical and spot checks on the results, making further investigations if it finds any contradictions between data and the market trends, said Liu.

Moreover, the establishment of a new CPI weight is under way, Liu added.