There has been much interest in recent years in the possibility of bias in consumer price indices. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has ongoing research to investigate the methodology of its own Retail Prices Index (RPI), with the aim of ensuring that the best possible methodology is used.
This article describes the current programme and highlights the main areas of investigation. It follows on from Baxter (1997), which discussed methodological issues and their relevance to the RPI. The UK research programme is not restricted to the five areas raised in the US Boskin Report .
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