Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer has said that the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) is based on the 2016 survey of goods and their prices.
Minister Ameer was responding to a question by Maafannu Central MP Ibrahim Rasheed (Bonde) seeking a written reply from the Finance Minister regarding the matter.
In his response, Minister Ameer said the CPI is an index based on the prices of selected goods and services derived from the 2016 Household Income and Expenditure Survey.
Prices of over 9,500 items are recorded every month from Male' City and four islands in the atolls. Every month, the Maldives Bureau of Statistics (MBS) compiles and publishes the CPI for Male', the atolls, and the whole country.
Minister Ameer said a report explaining the latest details of how the CPI is calculated has been published on the MBS website.
MP Rasheed asked what weight was given to oil products in calculating the CPI. In his written reply, Minister Ameer said the weightage given to oil products in the CPI is 0.57 percent.
