KATHMANDU, Sept 26: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), after a gap of nine years, has revised the base year that is used to estimate the 'Consumer Price Index'.

Amid criticism from people of various fronts regarding the inaccurate estimation on hikes in prices of essentials, the central bank has stepped up efforts in amending the measures. Analysts have been raising doubt over the consumer inflation figure being published by the NRB on a monthly basis stating that the figure does not reflect the heat of price hikes being experienced by the general people in real life.

According to the NRB, it will be considering the fiscal year 2023/24 as the base year to calculate the consumer price index. As of now, the central bank has been considering FY 2014/15 as the base year for the purpose.  

The NRB also informed that it will be considering 525 goods and services from 87 different markets across 77 districts to estimate the price index. As of now, the NRB has been incorporating 496 goods and services in total.

In addition, the central bank has also changed the types of consumer goods for consideration. A total of 106 goods and services that had been used before, but not at present, have been removed while the items that are currently in use have been added, according to the NRB.

Out of the new lists of 525 goods and services, the NRB will be collecting information on 59 goods and services every week, while it will take into account 94 goods and services on monthly basis and remaining 372 goods and services on quarterly basis.

In the new measures, the weightage of the food and beverage group has been revised to 45.79 percent from 43.91 percent. The weightage of the non-food and services group has been reduced to 54.21 percent from 56.09 percent.

According to the NRB, it will be publishing the consumer price index for the first time according to the federal structure of the country. The new Consumer Price Index has been prepared by a joint committee that involved the NRB, the Department of Statistics of Tribhuvan University and the National Statistics Office.

 
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