The International Methodological Guide is developed co-authored by National Statistics Office of Georgia (GEOSTAT)

Date: 9 September 2021

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has published a new methodological guide " Guide on producing Consumer Price Index  under Lockdown". The purpose of this Guide is to provide recommendations and examples of emerging best practices for producing the CPI under lockdown and other exceptional circumstances. It aims to assist countries in maintaining the quality and international comparability of CPIs under periods of lockdown.

Due to COVID19 it is difficult to conduct statistical survey , in many countries around the world under the period of  lockdown, including Consumer Price surveys, to calculate inflation rate.

Restrictions on population mobility, various regular price collection for the CPI could not take place from sectors of the economy and retail stores that were closed. As a result, the lockdown caused drops in the number of collected prices, statistical offices therefore had to explore new data sources and new ways of collecting prices and implement methods to make up for missing price observations and changes in data sources and collection methods. 

In response to these challenges, the guide discusses issues such as: alternative data sources and different modes of price collection and how to integrate price data from different sources in the CPI compilation, calculation methods and communication under lockdown conditions. This publication is based on best principles and methods of calculating the CPI as well as the best practices of different countries around the world.
The guide is co-authored by experts from UNECE, the office for National Statistics United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Eurostat, and also the experts from  Geostat of Price Statistics department.

It is publicly available on the United Nations (UN) website at the following link:
https://unece.org/statistics/publications/guide-producing-cpi-under-lockdown