The National Statistics Institute has published a translation of its Methodological Manual of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The update, which is known as a change of base year, sets the base year at 2023=100, and it requires the revision and update of the methodology for producing the index and the basket in order to make the indicator representative of the current consumption behavior of households in Chile.

The representativeness of the CPI basket is achieved through the selection of products (goods and services) that characterize patterns of household consumption. This information is gathered mainly through the IX Household Budget Survey, which INE conducted between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022. The CPI seeks to provide monthly comparability of price variations of products acquired by consumers.

Since 2009, INE has changed the CPI base year every five years in accord with the guidelines of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In the current change of base year, INE has adopted the 2018 update of the COICOP (Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose), which resulted in an increase in the number of divisions, groups, classes, and subclasses, whose goods and services are more clearly distinguished. A new Division (Insurance and Financial Services) was also created.

New features of this change in base year are the optimization of price collection through automated collection on websites (Webscraping) and through the collection of records that come directly from companies (scanner data). Other new features include the improved adjustments to weights and the development of new hedonic models.

Among the main characteristics of the new CPI basket is the decrease in the number of products from 303 to 283, which improves operational efficiency by avoiding an over-specification at the product level. This tendency began in previous updates (from 368 products in 2009 to 321 in 2013 and 303 in 2018).

Among the products with the highest weights in the new 2023 basket are rentals; food purchased in restaurants, cafes, and the like; new motorcars; gasoline; bread; electricity; and beef.

New products of the basket include breaded meat, vegetable beverages, vacuum cleaners, nutritional supplements, and garden and camping furniture.

Some products that were eliminated by market trends include fixed-line telephone services, printers, photographic cameras, and photocopy services.

See:

Methodological Manual of the Consumer Price Index (CPI)

CPI Basket

Analytical Indices (Spanish only)

Technical Committee (Spanish only)