Housing Sprint Third Meeting

Housing3


The third meeting will focus on gathering inputs from participants on the proposed next steps for improving the international comparability and quality of national CPIs, including the services costs of owner-occupied housing. Additionally, there will be a presentation on the work that Statistics South Africa has been doing to measure these costs in its CPI.


Wednesday, 24 October 2022, 7:00 to 10:00am (New York time)


Chair: Paul Konijn, Head of the Price Statistics, Purchasing Power Parities and Housing Statistics Unit at Eurostat

7:00 am - 7:15 am
Session 1 | Introduction, welcome remarks, and scene-setting
Welcome remarks

Ronald Jansen, Assistant Director of the UN Statistics Division and Chief of the Data Innovation and Capacity Management Branch

Summary report from the Second Sprint Meeting

Frantisek Bernadic, Director of macro-economic statistics, Eurostat


7:15 am - 7:35 am
Session 2 | Owner occupied housing in the South African CPI: weighting and pricing

The presentation will sketch the history of OOH in the South African CPI, the methods used for calculating weights and recording prices and some results.

Presenter: Presentation by Patrick Kelly, South Africa
Presentation: Owner occupied housing in the South African CPI

7:35 am - 8:30 am
Session 3 | Plenary Discussion

The objective of the plenary discussion is to gather input on the following proposed next steps meant to advance the comparability and utility of CPIs across the globe:

  • 1. OOH should be included in official CPIs, as recommended by the CPI Manual, as OOH is an important component of household expenditures and there is a strong user demand, in particular from central banks;
  • 2. An aim for the international statistical community is to explore, as a priority, the identification of a harmonized method for measuring OOH to use for international comparisons of inflation; it is recognized that to achieve this aspirational goal may take time and an iterative approach;
  • 3. When countries use a different method for measuring OOH than the identified harmonized one in their national CPI, it is recommended that they should aim to develop, in parallel, a CPI that is internationally comparable.
  • 4. Transparent metadata should be available so that users can clearly understand the purpose of the CPI and the methods used to compile it.



    • 8:30 am - 8:45 am
    Break

    8:45 am - 9:50 am
    Session 3 | Plenary Discussion (Continued)

    In this second part of the Plenary, participants are asked to provide their views on the proposal that the exploration of a harmonized method be entrusted jointly to the existing groups dedicated to improving the quality of the CPI, i.e. the Intersecretariat Working Group on Price Statistics and the Ottawa Group on Price Indices.


    9:50 am - 10:00 am
    Session 4 | Consolidating discussion, next steps, and closing remarks

    This session will synthesize the discussion and present the next steps.


    10:00 am
    Adjourn



    Active City Groups

    Completed Group

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    Countries
    • • Argentina
    • • Australia
    • • Bhutan
    • • Canada
    • • Colombia
    • • Costa Rica
    • • Indonesia
    • • Italy
    • • Lesotho
    • • Maldives
    • • Mexico
    • • Mongolia
    • • Netherlands
    • • New Zealand
    • • Oman
    • • Palestine
    • • Poland
    • • Saudi Arabia
    • • Seychelles
    • • South Africa
    • • Tunisia
    • • United Kingdom
    • • United States of America
    Agencies
    • • ADB
    • • ECA
    • • ECE
    • • ECLAC
    • • ESCAP
    • • ESCWA
    • • Eurostat
    • • IMF
    • • ISDB
    • • OECD
    • • UNSD
    • • World Bank