Mask and Electric Vehicles Added to Consumer Price Survey Items... School Uniforms and Meal Fees Removed

Statistics Korea Revises Consumer Price Index Based on 2020 Standards... Announcement in December

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Items with increased expenditure such as masks, electric vehicles (electric-powered vehicles), and probiotics have been newly added to the consumer price survey items, while items like school uniforms and school meal costs, which have been made free by government policy, and items with decreased consumption such as neckties and briquettes have been removed.

On the 2nd, Statistics Korea announced the plan to revise the Consumer Price Index (CPI), stating that the number of representative survey items has decreased by 2 from 460 to 458. Statistics Korea plans to revise the CPI base year from 2015 to 2020 and announce it on December 22. This revision is part of the regular revision conducted every five years.

Statistics Korea decided to add items with a high share of consumer expenditure compared to five years ago and exclude items with a low share. The weights (importance) of each item will also be newly calculated.

Through this revision, 14 items that have newly appeared or whose expenditure increased, with an average monthly household expenditure of 256 KRW or more last year, have been newly added. Among industrial products, 8 items were added including dishwashers, clothes dryers, probiotics, masks, bandages, electric-powered vehicles, sunglasses, and other processed meat products. Among agricultural, livestock, and fishery products, 5 items were included: shrimp, mango, cherry, avocado, and pineapple. One service item, pho (eating out), was also added.

Thirteen items with an average monthly expenditure below 256 KRW last year, items with expanded free provision, and items difficult to survey continuously were removed from the survey. Six items below the threshold were removed: neckties, briquettes, ski resort fees, printers, bidets, and suit care products. Two items difficult to survey continuously, clothing rental fees and cameras, were excluded. Five items made free by government policy?boys' school uniforms, girls' school uniforms, textbooks, high school tuition fees, and school meal costs?were also removed from the survey items.

With this revision, the base year for the Consumer Price Index changes from 2015 to 2020, and the base year for weights changes from 2017 to 2020.

From December this year, the Consumer Price Index based on the revised standards will be announced. The index from January 2020 to November 2021 will also be revised according to the new standards, so the inflation rates for that period may change partially. Statistics Korea added two cities, Hwaseong in Gyeonggi Province and Yangsan in Gyeongnam Province, to the consumer price survey areas. The additional survey areas were selected considering recent population and commercial district development. The total number of consumer price survey cities has increased to 40.

Additionally, 11 items with high similarity between items, decreased consumer expenditure, or difficulty in securing detailed expenditure data were consolidated into 5 items. Children's clothing and infant clothing were combined into 'infant and children's clothing'; pianos and string instruments into 'musical instruments'; intercity buses and express buses into 'intercity buses'; notebooks, sketchbooks, and copy paper into 'paper stationery'; and playground facility fees and leisure sports fees into 'playground facility fees.'

Conversely, due to the expansion of the share of surveyed products within items, 3 existing items were subdivided into 6 items. 'Instant foods' was divided into instant foods and convenience store lunch boxes; 'automotive products' into automotive products and black boxes; and 'cultural lesson fees' into cultural lesson fees and other academy fees.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.