(2 minutes read)
· Statistics South Africa started coming out with consumer
price index for essential products shortly after the lockdown: it also
brought out business impact surveys, to capture how companies are
faring under difficult conditions
· Now, data for 170 goods that comprise the 412 items in the
inflation basket for April are being gathered from retailers’ websites
by 12 staff
Statistics South Africa started coming out with consumer price index
for essential products shortly after the lockdown. It also brought out
business impact surveys, to capture how companies are faring under
difficult conditions.
Many of the agency’s regular releases were delayed due to the
pandemic. The mining, manufacturing and retail data due this week is
delayed which would have captured the trajectory between February –
before the first case of the pandemic was confirmed in South Africa
and now. Unemployment data for the first quarter will only be
published on June 9. One has to wait till June 30 to have a look at
the economic growth numbers for the last three months
The data collection agency also has changed the way in which the data
is collated. Prior to the pandemic, it used to dispatch about 100
fieldworkers to collect data on various sectors to track changes in
the price of goods. Now, data for 170 goods that comprise the 412
items in the inflation basket for April are being gathered from
retailers’ websites by 12 staff. Data for non-monthly inflation
survey items will be compiled by a team from head office. The virus
and subsequent use of data collected via web-based and telephonic
polls is accelerating the rate at which the agency plans to deploy new
data collection methods.
