Monthly rent data collection in both rural and urban areas as opposed to the current practice of collecting it every six months only for urban areas are proposed to be one of the key changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) that will form the basis of the new retail inflation series beginning February, a discussion paper by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Thursday stated.

Also, “to eliminate distortions introduced sometimes due to concessional or employer-provided dwellings” in the CPI series, government accommodations and other employer-provided dwellings will be excluded from the housing index as these do not reflect transactions in the actual rental market, the Ministry said.

The Ministry said the proposed changes in the methodology are being done w

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