Impacts Of The COVID-19 Lockdown On The March 2020 Quarter CPI And March 2020 FPI
Impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on the March 2020 quarter CPI and March 2020 FPI summarises the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on the methodology used for the March 2020 quarter consumers price index (CPI) and the monthly food price index (FPI). We focus on the prices of international airfares and accommodation, fruit and vegetables, and fuel.
The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the regular operations for the March 2020 quarter CPI (to be published on 20 April) is relatively minimal. Approximately 1.4 percent of all prices were collected using alternative methods, and 1.4 percent of prices were imputed, that is, we substituted the missing prices with other values.
Read the overview, and an outline of the assumptions and methods we used in compiling the CPI for the March 2020 quarter.