Methodologies of Price Indices in Transition CountriesWP/95/106-EA Methodologies of Price Indices in Transition Countries by Kimberly Zieschang A country's consumer and producer price indices are important indicators for setting and monitoring the progress of macroeconomic policy. Since late 1991, the IMF Statistics Department has conducted a program of technical assistance on consumer and producer price measurement and index compilation for the Baltic countries, the Russian Federation, and the former Soviet Union countries. These economies are in various states of transition from centrally planned to market organization and face special difficulties in developing price indices that meet international methodological guidelines. This paper describes and summarizes the findings of this technical assistance work over the past four years, and the methodology developed by Fund experts to adapt international guidelines to the prevailing economic conditions. The measurement problems and issues involved in compiling consumer and producer price indices in the transition context are cataloged, and the uses of these price series in compiling constant price national accounts are discussed. |