## 1. DQAF July 2003—Summary Results

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [1. DQAF July 2003—Summary Results](https://www.imf.org/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/scr/2008/_cr08273.pdf)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/scr/2008/_cr08273.pdf.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/scr/2008/_cr08273.pdf.json)

---

### Overall assessment
- Azerbaijan began participation in the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) on July 6, 2001, with metadata posted on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB).
- The Consumer Price Index (CPI) meets Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) specifications for coverage, periodicity, and timeliness.
- This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) data module assesses consumer price statistics against the July 2003 version of the IMF’s Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). It is a reassessment of the CPI component that was reviewed in 2002 against the July 2001 DQAF.
- Improvements since the last assessment noted in the text: confidentiality, relevance, professional independence, transparency, classification, source data, statistical techniques, cross-dataset consistency, and metadata accessibility.
- Institutional and operational strengths:
  - CPI compiled and disseminated by the State Statistical Committee (SSC) within a strong legal and institutional framework and with adequate resources.
  - SSC established by the Law on Official Statistics (as amended October 20, 2006) and the Statute on the State Statistical Committee (November 24, 2005).
  - CPI program directed by a five-year Program of Statistical Development and an annual Program of Statistical Work approved at executive government levels.
  - Confidentiality of individual reporters’ information strongly supported in law and practice.
  - A broadly-representative Statistical Council exists to provide user feedback; minutes available on request.
- Mission view: the CPI is a methodologically sound and reliable inflation indicator, but sustained action is warranted to address user concerns about representativeness (notably regional aggregation and treatment of housing).
- Release practices and timeliness:
  - SSC gives users a one-month advance reminder of its annual update for CPI weights in its statistical bulletin, and a one-month advance notice of updates to the CPI item list.
  - HBS data for weights available by February following the most recent survey year.
  - Price data available by the fifth of the month after the survey month.
  - Since 2007, HBS expenditure data used for weighting CPI survey regions within economic regions and for combining the 11 economic regions into the national index.
  - The monthly index is usually published by the 10th of the month following the survey month; monthly figures are published between the 12th and 15th of the following month in some publications.
- Notable methodological issue:
  - The CPI expenditure weight for expenditures on housing services by households owning their own dwellings deviates from the imputed rentals concept in household final consumption expenditure. The mission suggests convening an expert group to study options for improving measurement of housing consumption prices and developing a measure of housing asset prices.
- Advance release calendar:
  - SSC posted a sample SDDS advance release calendar on its website, but at mission time the calendar did not contain release dates for at least the next three months and was not updated from a “not later than” date to an exact date by the last business day of the week preceding the release.

### DQAF summary (Table 1 highlights)
- Key to symbols: O = Practice Observed; LO = Practice Largely Observed; LNO = Practice Largely Not Observed; NO = Practice Not Observed; NA = Not Applicable
- 0. Prerequisites of quality
  - 0.1 Legal and institutional environment: O
  - 0.2 Resources: O
  - 0.3 Relevance: LO
  - 0.4 Other quality management: O
- 1. Assurances of integrity
  - 1.1 Professionalism: O
  - 1.2 Transparency: O
  - 1.3 Ethical standards: O
- 2. Methodological soundness
  - 2.1 Concepts and definitions: O
  - 2.2 Scope: O
  - 2.3 Classification/sectorization: O
  - 2.4 Basis for recording: O
- 3. Accuracy and reliability
  - 3.1 Source data: O
  - 3.2 Assessment of source data: O
  - 3.3 Statistical techniques: LO
  - 3.4 Assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs: O
  - 3.5 Revision studies: O
- 4. Serviceability
  - 4.1 Periodicity and timeliness: O
  - 4.2 Consistency: O
  - 4.3 Revision policy and practice: O
- 5. Accessibility
  - 5.1 Data accessibility: LO
  - 5.2 Metadata accessibility: O
  - 5.3 Assistance to users: O

### Recommendations (summary)
- Use the recently-formed Statistical Council more proactively to identify and address users’ concerns to foster confidence in the published CPI.
- Inform the Council and users about effects of SSC confidentiality policy and reasons for limiting disseminated detail of HBS expenditure information used for CPI weights.
- Bring Council attention to product and area weighting concerns and any internal/external assessments.
- Propose Council discussion of forward-looking matters such as price indicators to meet new measurement needs.
- Technically evaluate the rental equivalence and user cost approaches to owner-occupied housing consumption, and the net acquisitions approach to households’ capital formation expenditures for dwellings; collaboration between the Price Statistics Division, National Accounts Division, and Scientific-Methodology Council is essential; consider forming a specific advisory expert group.
- Keep the SDDS advance release calendar current and promote it through user outreach to improve user confidence and align with SDDS requirements.

---

### Legal, institutional, and confidentiality framework
- CPI compiled and disseminated by the State Statistical Committee (SSC) governed by the Law on Official Statistics, as amended October 20, 2006.
- Statute on the State Statistical Committee (November 24, 2005) paragraph: SSC is the central executive authority running state policy in the field of statistics and forming official statistics on the social, economic and demographic situation of country on the base of unified methodology.
- Article 7 guarantees the SSC’s access to administrative records and other data produced by legal entities (including ministries and the National Bank of Azerbaijan).
- Article 10: When implementing the Programme, the state statistical bodies are autonomous and shall not seek or take instructions from state and local bodies notably in the selection of data sources, statistical methods, in the contents, form and time of dissemination and in the application of statistical confidentiality.
- Articles governing primary data and confidentiality (listed exactly as in source):
  - Article 15. Primary statistical data and its use
  - Article 16. Statistical confidentiality and data from public sources
  - Article 17. Use of confidential statistical data
  - Article 18. Scientific research
  - Article 19. Access to confidential statistical data
  - Article 20. Protection measures
- Article 22 (Dissemination of confidential statistical data) disclosure standard:
  - Official Statistics must not be disseminated to users, if they contain or reveal confidential data. To this end, aggregates shall comprise at least three units and the share of one unit in an aggregate must not exceed 85% of the total.
- Article 26 (Responsibility for violating the legislation on statistics): Any violation of the legislation on statistics shall necessary entail disciplinary, administrative or criminal responsibility in accordance with the legislation.
- Article 28 (Responsibility of staff of the state statistical bodies): liability for legal action against staff of state statistical bodies violating the confidentiality of individual records during or after their employment with those bodies.
- Statute on the SSC (November 24, 2005) paragraph 6.5: requires the SSC to maintain confidentiality as a condition for providing users with data at the country, region, and city level; paragraph 7.16: charges the SSC to carry out necessary measures to prevent obtaining, disseminating and using confidential statistical data contradicting the law.
- Staff undertake confidentiality undertakings on joining the SSC; access to individual data is restricted to appropriate staff.

### Institutional coordination and data sharing
- Interagency data sharing arrangements described as strong and functional.
- Records from other agencies (for CPI in particular, such as the MOF) are used in updating the SSC business register, an important source for constructing and updating the retail establishment sampling frame for the CPI outlet sample.
- Article 6 empowers the SSC to obtain data from registered economic units and households, including commercially confidential data; penalties exist for violation or noncompliance.
- To encourage voluntary response, the SSC reduced reporting burden on small enterprises (requests data quarterly rather than monthly) and reduced the total number of report forms by over two thirds. Full assistance is available for respondents in completing questionnaires.

---

### Resources, staffing, systems, and resource-efficiency
- CPI section staffing:
  - The CPI section of the Price Statistics Division has one chief economist and one senior economist handling day-to-day operations and reporting to the Head of the Prices Division.
  - The CPI establishment survey comprises 17 price collectors (registrars) in the Baku regional office, which supplies data on the Baku CPI region covering 11 districts.
  - There are 85 additional price collectors in the 59 districts covering the remaining 53 CPI regions (the Nakhchivan region covers 7 districts).
- Systems and training:
  - SSC has a network of personal computers serving all professional staff of the CPI section.
  - A modern, secure price database serves regional office collection and validation, and central office retrieval and analysis of individual record information.
  - Index calculation system is modern and its algorithms incorporate current international recommendations.
  - The computer system serving the Household Budget Survey (HBS) is modern and secure for storage and retrieval for survey management, analysis, and compilation of CPI weights.
  - Staff are trained regularly through internal seminars; participation in international training opportunities is promoted.
- Compensation and incentives:
  - Salary rates are reviewed annually and have been adjusted periodically.
  - Price collectors receive transportation allowances.
- Efficiency measures:
  - SSC Board (collegia) supervises organization of work and execution of the Program of Statistical Work, coordinates departments, advises on priorities, determines funding requirements, and ensures compatible methodologies and good practices.
  - Article 3 of the Law on Official Statistics directs the Programme to take existing resources, respondent burdens and cost-effectiveness into account.
  - Managers conduct periodic reviews of staff performance.
  - Retail establishment sample is updated continuously based on information from price collectors rather than waiting for formal resampling.

---

### Source data, coverage, and sampling
- HBS and retail surveys:
  - HBS sample frame derived from the 1999 Census of Population and is updated when enumerators find new households; coverage of the HBS frame is estimated in excess of 95 percent of all households.
  - Survey sample: about 4400 households each quarter, allowing annual CPI weight updates.
  - HBS excludes households headed by non-Azerbaijani citizens; undercoverage estimated at 2.5 percent; retail sales data cover resident foreigners’ transactions.
- Price collection:
  - Some 9,500 outlets are covered, selected by the sales volumes observed in the SSC Trade Division Surveys.
  - Prices are collected for 569 different products in each of the 54 CPI regions, comprising more than 130,000 quotes per month.
  - Price collection frequency: weekly for all food items, monthly for almost all other items; utilities, education and health collected at less than monthly and generally at annual frequency.
- Timeliness of inputs:
  - HBS data for the previous year are compiled as weights for the CPI by February of the current year and incorporated into March CPI data by the April release.
  - Prices for the previous month are normally collected within five days of the current month.

### Assessment of source data and compilation techniques
- Source-data assessment:
  - Source data are routinely assessed for coverage, sample error, response error, and nonsampling error; results monitored and made available to guide statistical processes.
  - Household item nonresponse and under-reporting are routinely monitored; household sample periodically augmented for attrition; retail establishment sample routinely refreshed.
  - CPI price returns are closely monitored to assess item disappearance; item sample reviewed annually and updated as required.
- Compilation and statistical techniques:
  - Valuation at purchasers’ prices, including production for own consumption.
  - Since 2005, elementary level indexes are calculated using the geometric means of observed commodity price relatives.
  - A modified Laspeyres formula is used to calculate aggregate indexes; the index is rebased during February–March of each year using weights compiled from the HBS from the previous year and is linked to the March index.
  - Treatment of missing prices:
    - Temporarily missing prices are imputed using the group mean approach.
    - Imputations for seasonal products use the same group mean algorithm.
    - Products permanently unavailable are replaced and linked using the overlap method; direct comparisons with explicit quality adjustments are not made between unavailable items and noncomparable replacements.
  - In January 2008: nine new products were introduced into the item sample; 25 old products considered no longer representative were dropped (generally on the basis of the 2007 HBS).
  - Commodity specifications used for price collections are sufficient to ensure comparability month to month.
  - Reference base of price relatives adjusted when linking the annually rebased index (internationally standard methodology).

---

### Treatment of owner-occupied housing (core methodological discrepancy)
- Current CPI treatment:
  - Expenditures on owner-occupied housing in the CPI are represented by expenditures for maintenance and repair of the dwelling (COICOP 04.3).
  - National accounts use imputed rentals (COICOP 04.2).
- User cost concept stated as:
  - COICOP 04.2 Imputed rentals =
    - Real interest on funds invested in the dwelling (at the current market value of the unit)
    - + COICOP 04.3 Expenditures on maintenance and repair of the dwelling.
  - Where “Real interest on funds invested in the dwelling” is the difference between the interest forgone on invested financial capital and the expected appreciation.
- SSC practice:
  - SSC publishes and includes in the overall CPI a price index for COICOP 04.3 (Maintenance and repair of the dwelling); thus CPI takes a partial user cost approach by covering the maintenance and repair component.
- Alternatives and considerations:
  - Rental equivalence: imputes rental value of owner-occupied units from rents on similar rented units; SSC uses rental equivalence in national accounts by averaging rental per rented housing unit within each district and imputing to owner-occupied units in that district.
  - User cost: builds rental value from cost-of-ownership components (maintenance and repairs, forgone interest minus expected appreciation).
  - Net acquisitions approach (CPI Manual, Chapter 14): weight = net acquisitions of houses by households by type and location + value of major improvements; price = purchase price of housing units by type and location.
  - House price change is thought to be significant in larger urban areas of Azerbaijan; SSC staff considered a house price index as a separate product but prefer to maintain the consumption orientation of the CPI.
- Evidence and cautions:
  - Recent published evidence from the CPI shows lower inflation in actual rentals (rental equivalence) than inflation in maintenance and repair items currently used.
  - Maintenance and repair excludes the real interest component of user cost.
  - Rental sample representativeness needs examination for changes in rental value of owned housing stock.
  - Impact on overall index depends on pricing approach chosen and whether national accounts imputed rent estimate (COICOP 04.2) is larger or smaller than the maintenance-and-repair estimate (COICOP 04.3) currently used.
- Recommendation (housing measurement):
  - The SSC should technically evaluate the rental equivalence and user cost approaches to covering housing services consumption of owner-occupant households and the net acquisitions approach to households’ capital formation expenditures for dwellings.
  - Collaboration between the Price Statistics Division, National Accounts Division, and Scientific-Methodology Council is essential.
  - A specific advisory expert group of SSC and outside experts on housing could be useful.

---

### Serviceability, accessibility, and user engagement
- Periodicity and timeliness:
  - CPI periodicity: M (monthly).
  - Timeliness: M; monthly index usually published by the 10th of the month following the survey month; monthly figures published between the 12th and 15th of the following month in some outlets.
- Consistency:
  - CPI internally and temporally consistent; expenditure aggregate identical with household consumption expenditure aggregate in national accounts except for owner-occupied housing.
  - Consistent time series available back to 1995 (official CPI first published then); an unofficial series of lesser quality is available back to 1990.
- Data accessibility and dissemination:
  - CPI price index data are published for 569 goods and services and for the 11 economic regions, with charts in some publications.
  - CPI price index data published at a high level of detail (569 items beginning March 2008).
  - CPI monthly publication usually appears by the 12th of the month, earlier in electronic form (pdf); English-language tables appear in the SDDS section of the website.
  - Unpublished tables available upon request if confidentiality is not violated; index weights internally available at the same level as indices but are not publicly available because of Article 22 disclosure rules.
  - No seasonally adjusted series are produced.
- Metadata and user assistance:
  - Metadata posted on the IMF’s GDDS website since February 2001 and most recently updated in November 2007.
  - Contact persons’ names and telephone numbers are published in monthly and annual prices publications.
  - The “Catalog of Statistical Publications” is available annually in hard copy and on the SSC website; it contains contact addresses, phone numbers, and expected publication dates of SSC products.
- Advance release calendar:
  - SSC published a sample “not later than” advance release calendar on its website in SDDS format covering an eight month period ending January 2008; format meets SDDS requirements except SSC does not update release date to a specific day by the last working day of the week preceding the release.
  - To meet SDDS requirements, the release calendar should be current within three months of the date of release.
  - Recommendation: Keeping the SDDS advance release calendar current and making this site known through user outreach could improve user confidence and align practice with SDDS requirements.

---

### Users’ survey and communications strategy
- Users’ survey: 21 responses received from banks, non-governmental organizations, embassies, multilateral financial institutions, the press, nonfinancial corporations, and government agencies.
- Broad findings:
  - A significant fraction of users found the timeliness and periodicity of the CPI, and the user services of the SSC in providing information on request, to be good.
  - A number of users were not fully confident the index has adequate geographical or product coverage or, more broadly, accurately measures inflation.
  - With a few exceptions, negative responses were not specific as to sources of disquiet about index accuracy.
  - Some users could not easily find information on the index methodology, while others could not find the data they were looking for.
- Recommended communications actions:
  - Develop a communications strategy to make information on index coverage and methodology more easily available to the public.
  - Make users aware of where to obtain the information they are seeking.
  - Continue outreach to influential user groups to explain the CPI and investigate sources of user lack of confidence.
  - Use the Statistical Council to educate users about disclosure rules and methodological choices.

---

*Source: _cr08273 - 1.     DQAF July 2003—Summary Results; Azerbaijan — Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC)—Data Module; Detailed Assessment Using the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF), July 21, 2008.*

### 1.     DQAF July 2003—Summary Results................................................................................7

### 1.     DQAF July 2003—Summary Results

### Overall assessment
- Azerbaijan began participation in the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) on July 6, 2001, with metadata posted on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB).
- The Consumer Price Index (CPI) meets Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) specifications for coverage, periodicity, and timeliness.
- This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) data module assesses consumer price statistics against the July 2003 version of the IMF’s Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). It is a reassessment of the CPI component that was reviewed in 2002 against the July 2001 DQAF.
- Improvements since the last assessment noted in the text: confidentiality, relevance, professional independence, transparency, classification, source data, statistical techniques, cross-dataset consistency, and metadata accessibility.
- The CPI is compiled and disseminated by the State Statistical Committee (SSC) within a strong legal and institutional framework and with adequate resources:
  - SSC established by the Law on Official Statistics (as amended October 20, 2006) and the Statute on the State Statistical Committee (November 24, 2005).
  - CPI program directed by a five-year Program of Statistical Development and an annual Program of Statistical Work approved at executive government levels.
  - Confidentiality of individual reporters’ information strongly supported in law and practice.
  - A broadly-representative Statistical Council exists to provide user feedback; minutes available on request.
- Mission view: the CPI is a methodologically sound and reliable inflation indicator, but sustained action is warranted to address user concerns about representativeness (notably regional aggregation and treatment of housing).
- The SSC gives users a one-month advance reminder of its annual update for CPI weights in its statistical bulletin, and a one-month advance notice of updates to the CPI item list.
- CPI data sources and timeliness:
  - HBS data for weights available by February following the most recent survey year.
  - Price data available by the fifth of the month after the survey month.
  - Since 2007, HBS expenditure data used for weighting CPI survey regions within economic regions and for combining the 11 economic regions into the national index.
  - The monthly index is usually published by the 10th of the month following the survey month.
- A methodological issue highlighted: the CPI expenditure weight for expenditures on housing services by households owning their own dwellings deviates from the imputed rentals concept in household final consumption expenditure. The mission suggests convening an expert group to study options for improving measurement of housing consumption prices and developing a measure of housing asset prices.
- Accessibility and advance release practices:
  - Advance notice of CPI releases can be inferred from the prescribed maximum publication lags in the Annual Statistical Program; SSC posted a sample SDDS advance release calendar on its website.
  - At mission time, the advance release calendar did not contain release dates for at least the next three months and was not updated from a “not later than” date to an exact date by the last business day of the week preceding the release.

### Assessment by agency and dataset — DQAF summary (Table 1)
Key to symbols: O = Practice Observed; LO = Practice Largely Observed; LNO = Practice Largely Not Observed; NO = Practice Not Observed; NA = Not Applicable

- 0. Prerequisites of quality
  - 0.1 Legal and institutional environment: O
  - 0.2 Resources: O
  - 0.3 Relevance: LO
  - 0.4 Other quality management: O
- 1. Assurances of integrity
  - 1.1 Professionalism: O
  - 1.2 Transparency: O
  - 1.3 Ethical standards: O
- 2. Methodological soundness
  - 2.1 Concepts and definitions: O
  - 2.2 Scope: O
  - 2.3 Classification/sectorization: O
  - 2.4 Basis for recording: O
- 3. Accuracy and reliability
  - 3.1 Source data: O
  - 3.2 Assessment of source data: O
  - 3.3 Statistical techniques: LO
  - 3.4 Assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs: O
  - 3.5 Revision studies: O
- 4. Serviceability
  - 4.1 Periodicity and timeliness: O
  - 4.2 Consistency: O
  - 4.3 Revision policy and practice: O
- 5. Accessibility
  - 5.1 Data accessibility: LO
  - 5.2 Metadata accessibility: O
  - 5.3 Assistance to users: O

- Definitions of symbol interpretations are provided, including that "Practice observed" means practices meet DQAF objectives without significant deficiencies, and "Practice largely observed" indicates some departures not judged materially problematic.

### Assessment of Dimensions 0 and 1 — State Statistical Committee (Table 2 summary)
- Legal and institutional environment:
  - Law on Official Statistics and the Statute provide strong support for SSC as central national statistical organization with broad powers in collection, processing, dissemination.
  - SSC access to administrative records across government legally assured.
  - Confidentiality strongly protected; reporting on SSC surveys legally mandatory with requirement to consider respondent burden.
- Resources:
  - The CPI Section of the SSC Price Statistics Division is adequately staffed.
  - IT infrastructure access and design supports smooth CPI operations.
- Relevance:
  - Law directs establishment of a Statistical Council of users (government, business, unions, academia, public) to ensure CPI relevance.
  - SSC could use the Council to identify user concerns undermining confidence (e.g., representativeness of product and area weighting, treatment of housing inflation).
  - SSC believes user concerns now focus more on food inflation and intends continued user education.
- Other quality management:
  - SSC proposes Program of Statistical Work in consultation with the Statistical Council for approval by the Council of Ministers; plan development systematic and execution broadly successful.
  - Quality considered strongly in survey design, index calculation, and dissemination procedures.
- Professionalism:
  - Legislation supports independence of statistical compilation from government policy stance, including choice of sources and methods.
  - Mission found no evidence of non-adherence to legal requirements ensuring SSC autonomy.
  - SSC responds to external criticisms as appropriate under the Law on Official Statistics.
- Transparency:
  - Law and Statute specify terms and conditions for collection, processing, dissemination.
  - Monthly CPI figures released simultaneously via SSC website; outputs clearly identified (including republication on National Bank of Azerbaijan website).
  - Users given one month notice in monthly bulletin of methodological changes.
- Ethical standards:
  - Guidelines prohibiting outside work and breaches of confidential data stated in law and known to staff.
  - Law provides for legal liability for nonobservance and references penalties.

### Assessment of Dimensions 2 to 5 — Consumer Price Index (Table 3 summary)
- Methodological soundness
  - Concepts and definitions: generally in line with internationally accepted standards and guidelines (1993 SNA; CPI Manual 2004).
  - Scope: expenditures coincide with household final consumption expenditures in the national accounts (except owner-occupied dwellings issue noted elsewhere).
  - Classification/sectorization: institutional units and transactions classified in line with the 1993 SNA; COICOP used in HBS since 2002 and in CPI since 2003.
  - Basis for recording: HBS and CPI price collections measure consumption at market purchasers’ prices; expenditures and price observations pertain to years/months households acquired ownership or received services; weights for consumer durables measured net of sales.
- Accuracy and reliability
  - Source data: HBS and retail establishment survey use modern designs producing representative samples; source data are commendably timely.
  - Assessment of source data: unit and item nonresponse monitored closely on HBS; household sample periodically augmented for attrition; retail establishment sample routinely refreshed.
  - Statistical techniques: current standard international recommendations used for index formula, elementary aggregation, imputation of missing and seasonal items. The treatment of owner-occupied housing differs from national accounts.
  - Assessment and validation of intermediate data and outputs: changes in the CPI cross-checked against the PPI.
  - Revision studies: SSC reviews changes in CPI weights at rebasing.
- Serviceability
  - Periodicity and timeliness: meet and exceed SDDS requirements; monthly index usually published by the 10th of the month following the survey month.
  - Consistency: CPI internally and temporally consistent; expenditure aggregate identical with household consumption expenditure aggregate in national accounts except for owner-occupied housing.
  - Revision policy and practice: CPI weights updated annually, with HBS-based weights from the previous year incorporated into the index in the April release of the following year.
- Accessibility
  - Data accessibility: CPI price index data published by categories and for the 11 economic regions, with charts in some publications; some commentary included; unpublished tables available subject to confidentiality (Article 22, Law on Official Statistics). CPI price index data already published at a high level of detail (569 items beginning March 2008).
  - Metadata accessibility: metadata posted on the IMF’s GDDS website since February 2001 and most recently updated in November 2007.
  - Assistance to users: contact names and telephone numbers published in monthly and annual prices publications; “Catalog of Statistical Publications” available annually in hard copy and on SSC website with contact addresses, phone numbers, and expected publication dates.

### Implementation and next steps
- The report notes that Section II provides a summary assessment on a four-part scale, followed by staff recommendations in Section III. Practices compared to the SDDS are summarized in Appendix Table 4. The authorities’ response and a volume of detailed assessments are presented in separate documents.

*Source: _cr08273 - 1.     DQAF July 2003—Summary Results*

### 13.      Based on the review of statistical practices, discussions with the data producing

### _cr08273 - 13.      Based on the review of statistical practices, discussions with the data producing

### Recommendations to increase adherence to international statistical practices and enhance CPI usefulness
- Use the recently-formed Statistical Council more proactively to identify and address users’ concerns to foster confidence in the published CPI.
- Use the Council as a forum to inform users about the impacts of the SSC’s confidentiality policy; the SSC limits disseminated detail of the HBS expenditure information used for CPI weights to ensure disclosure rules are met (one user did not understand the reason for this).
- Make the Council aware of user concerns arising from product and area weighting of the CPI, and of any internal and external assessments of such issues.
- Propose Council discussion of forward-looking matters such as price indicators to meet new measurement needs.
- Technically evaluate:
  - the rental equivalence and user cost approaches to covering the housing services consumption of households that own their dwellings, and
  - the net acquisitions approach to households’ capital formation expenditures for dwellings.
  - Collaboration between the Price Statistics Division, National Accounts Division, and Scientific-Methodology Council is essential; a specific advisory expert group of SSC and outside experts on housing could be useful.
- Keep the SDDS advance release calendar current and promote it through user outreach to improve user confidence in CPI transparency and professionalism and align with SDDS requirements.

### Periodicity, timeliness, and SDDS comparability for CPI (as presented in Appendix Table 4)
- Data Category: Real Sector — Consumer Price Index
- Coverage (meets SDDS requirement): Yes
- Periodicity: M
- Timeliness: M
- Comments: NLT 10d –
- Note definitions reproduced:
  - Periodicity and timeliness: (D) daily; (W) weekly or with a lag of no more than one week from the reference data or the closing of the reference week; (M) monthly or with a lag of no more than one month; (Q) quarterly or with a lag of no more than one quarter; (A) annually; and (...) not applicable.
  - Italics indicate encouraged categories.

### Legal, institutional, and confidentiality framework (key elements and provisions)
- CPI compiled and disseminated by the State Statistical Committee (SSC) governed by the Law on Official Statistics, as amended October 20, 2006.
- Statute on the State Statistical Committee (November 24, 2005) paragraph: SSC is the central executive authority running state policy in the field of statistics and forming official statistics on the social, economic and demographic situation of country on the base of unified methodology.
- Article 3, Article 6, and other provisions of the Law specify SSC responsibilities including preparing the Programme of Statistical Works after consultation of the Statistical Council, methodology, classifications, dissemination, guaranteeing reliability and objectivity, and ensuring confidentiality.
- Article 7 guarantees the SSC’s access to administrative records and other data produced by legal entities (including ministries and the National Bank of Azerbaijan).
- Article 10: When implementing the Programme, the state statistical bodies are autonomous and shall not seek or take instructions from state and local bodies notably in the selection of data sources, statistical methods, in the contents, form and time of dissemination and in the application of statistical confidentiality.
- Articles governing primary data and confidentiality (listed exactly as in source):
  - Article 15. Primary statistical data and its use
  - Article 16. Statistical confidentiality and data from public sources
  - Article 17. Use of confidential statistical data
  - Article 18. Scientific research
  - Article 19. Access to confidential statistical data
  - Article 20. Protection measures
- Article 22 (Dissemination of confidential statistical data) disclosure standard:
  - Official Statistics must not be disseminated to users, if they contain or reveal confidential data. To this end, aggregates shall comprise at least three units and the share of one unit in an aggregate must not exceed 85% of the total.
- Article 26 (Responsibility for violating the legislation on statistics): Any violation of the legislation on statistics shall necessary entail disciplinary, administrative or criminal responsibility in accordance with the legislation.
- Article 28 (Responsibility of staff of the state statistical bodies): liability for legal action against staff of state statistical bodies violating the confidentiality of individual records during or after their employment with those bodies.
- Statute on the SSC (November 24, 2005) paragraph 6.5: requires the SSC to maintain confidentiality as a condition for providing users with data at the country, region, and city level; paragraph 7.16: charges the SSC to carry out necessary measures to prevent obtaining, disseminating and using confidential statistical data contradicting the law.
- Survey forms state reported data are subject to confidentiality under the Law. Staff sign a confidentiality undertaking on joining the SSC; access to individual data is restricted to appropriate staff.

### Institutional coordination, data sharing, and reporting mandates
- Interagency data sharing arrangements described as strong and functional.
- Records from other agencies (for CPI in particular, such as the MOF) are used in updating the SSC business register, an important source for constructing and updating the retail establishment sampling frame for the CPI outlet sample.
- Article 6 empowers the SSC to obtain data from registered economic units and households, including commercially confidential data; penalties exist for violation or noncompliance.
- To encourage voluntary response, the SSC has reduced reporting burden on small enterprises (requests data quarterly rather than monthly) and reduced the total number of report forms by over two thirds. Full assistance is available for respondents in completing questionnaires.

### Resources, staffing, systems, and resource-efficiency measures
- CPI section staffing and field resources:
  - The CPI section of the Price Statistics Division has one chief economist and one senior economist handling day-to-day operations and reporting to the Head of the Prices Division.
  - The CPI establishment survey comprises 17 price collectors (registrars) in the Baku regional office, which supplies data on the Baku CPI region covering 11 districts.
  - There are 85 additional price collectors in the 59 districts covering the remaining 53 CPI regions (the Nakhchivan region covers 7 districts).
- Systems and training:
  - SSC has a network of personal computers serving all professional staff of the CPI section.
  - A modern, secure price database serves regional office collection and validation, and central office retrieval and analysis of individual record information.
  - Index calculation system is modern and its algorithms incorporate current international recommendations.
  - The computer system serving the Household Budget Survey (HBS) is modern and secure for storage and retrieval for survey management, analysis, and compilation of CPI weights.
  - Staff are trained regularly through internal seminars; participation in international training opportunities is promoted.
- Compensation and incentives:
  - Salary rates are reviewed annually and have been adjusted periodically.
  - Price collectors receive transportation allowances.
- Measures to ensure efficient use of resources:
  - SSC Board (collegia) supervises organization of work and execution of the Program of Statistical Work, coordinates departments, advises on priorities, determines funding requirements, and ensures compatible methodologies and good practices.
  - Article 3 of the Law on Official Statistics directs the Programme to take existing resources, respondent burdens and cost-effectiveness into account.
  - Managers conduct periodic reviews of staff performance.
  - Decision to update the retail establishment sample continuously on the basis of information from price collectors rather than wait for a formal resampling procedure demonstrates periodic review for increased efficiency; business register updates have a lag, so formal resampling may best be undertaken only every several years.

*Source: Azerbaijan — Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC)—Data Module; Detailed Assessment Using the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF), July 21, 2008.*

### 0.3       Relevance

### 0.3       Relevance

### Statistical Council and user engagement
- Article 8 of the Law on Official Statistics of February 18, 1994, as amended October 20, 2006, establishes a Statistical Council of data users from the government, business, trade union, academic, and other social sectors that advises on the work program of the SSC.
- Statutory description of the Council’s functions (verbatim passages retained):
  - "to give an opinion and to make recommendations on the preparation of the Programme;"
  - "to give advice on the implementation of the Programme;"
  - "to prepare recommendations for the systematic development of the system of Official Statistics in the Republic of Azerbaijan;"
  - "to give appropriate recommendation to the SSC of Azerbaijan taking into consideration remarks, comments and purposes by user;"
  - "The work of the Council is public. It may address its opinions to the public."
- Composition and tenure (verbatim summary):
  - "The Council shall be composed of the representatives of the SSC of Azerbaijan, Ministries of Finance, Economic Development, Taxes, State Committee of Customs, National Bank, Trade Unions, private enterprises, academic society, and users."
  - "The members of the Council shall be approved by a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers for a term of 5 years."
- The Council meets quarterly and is the principal channel through which user needs influence SSC statistical products and its program of work.
- Practical use: The Price Statistics Division would be involved in SSC management’s preparation for the periodic Council meetings through the SSC Board (collegium) should a price issue be thought relevant for the agenda. This has not happened yet, and the Council has not yet been a significant source of user feedback on the CPI.
- Opportunities identified:
  - The Council may be underutilized for educating users about SSC products and disclosure rules.
  - Examples for Council agenda use:
    - addressing public controversy about the accuracy or credibility of SSC data series;
    - explaining SSC decisions not to release selected detailed data items (e.g., to protect privacy or manage staff capacity).

- Recommendation (verbatim summary):
  - "The SSC could use the recently-formed Statistical Council more proactively to help identify and address users’ concerns in order to foster confidence in the published CPI."
  - The Council could be used to inform users about disclosure policy impacts, issues on product and area weighting of the CPI, internal and external assessments, and forward-looking needs such as new price indicators.

### Price Statistics (Consumer Price Index) — institutional context
- The Law on Official Statistics and Statute on the State Statistical Committee provide the legal framework supporting SSC independence and user communication functions.
- Statutory provisions cited (verbatim excerpts):
  - Article 9: "In order to ensure the quality of Official Statistics and retain the trust of the public therein, the organisation and implementation of the Programme [of Statistical Works] shall be governed by the principles of reliability, objectivity, relevance in present situation, statistical confidentiality and transparency."
  - Article 10: "The state and non-government organisations shall not interfere to the implementation of powers of the state statistical bodies and not influence the staff of the statistical authorities in the performance of their tasks."
  - Article 10 (further): "When implementing the Programme, the state statistical bodies are autonomous and shall not seek or take instructions from state and local bodies notably in the selection of data sources, statistical methods, in the contents, form and time of dissemination and in the application of statistical confidentiality."
  - Statute paragraph 8 (rights): "to publish information on the results of economic and social situation of the Republic of Azerbaijan, to work out methodological issues in the area of statistics and registration;" and "to select the source and method of data acquisition for carrying out works in the field of statistics, to determine the form and time of its dissemination ..."
  - Article 6 (duties): "Providing explanation with the purpose to avoid erroneous interpretation of the statistical results by users, appearance in the mass media;"

### 0.4       Other quality management

### Focus on quality (0.4.1)
- Management emphasizes maximizing quality through process design and staff motivation.
- Examples of quality practices:
  - careful review of price changes with particular attention to unusual items prior to final index tabulation;
  - strong focus on implementing international best practice as described in the Consumer Price Index Manual 2004 (CPI Manual);
  - product specifications recorded and saved on the price database;
  - survey forms preprinted with product specification descriptions assigned to each establishment.

### Monitoring quality of the statistical program (0.4.2)
- The Statistical Council is the principal source of fitness-for-use quality assessment information from users and has a consultative role in SSC’s five-year Program for Development of Statistics and annual Program of Statistical Work.
- Internal quality controls and governance:
  - retail establishment survey and household budget survey returns are closely monitored for accuracy;
  - essentially all compilation steps are automated in software, assuring consistent application of index calculation algorithms and ensuring very low compilation error rates;
  - Technical issues are discussed and approved by the Scientific-Methodological Council (Statute on the State Statistical Committee, November 24, 2005, paragraph 18), comprising SSC senior staff, who meet bimonthly.

### Quality considerations in planning (0.4.3)
- A five-year Program for the Development of Statistics is maintained with advice of the Statistical Council and approved by the Council of Ministers; the current program covers 2008–2012.
- Implementation and accountability:
  - the Chairman of the SSC is accountable to the President for Execution of the annual Program of Statistical Work;
  - the SSC reports to the Statistics Council on progress with the annual statistical work program twice a year, and annually reports to the Council on the five-year development program;
  - SSC management includes a Head of Apparatus coordinating execution of the Program within the agency budget and liaising with division heads (including the Prices Division), administrative department heads (including the Accounting Department), and two Deputy Chairmen;
  - the Scientific-Methodological Council’s bimonthly meetings may develop proposals to implement new methodologies or establish new data sources and statistical products.

### 1. Assurances of integrity

### Professionalism (1.1)
- Legal guarantees of independence:
  - Section IV of the Law on Official Statistics (as amended October 20, 2006) guarantees the professional independence of the SSC.
  - Paragraph 9 of the Statute on the State Statistical Committee (November 24, 2005) prescribes that the Chairman of the SSC is appointed directly by the President.
- Recruitment and conduct:
  - Professional qualifications guide recruitment and career development of staff.
  - The mission found no evidence that the SSC and other government agencies have not fully adhered to legal requirements ensuring SSC autonomy.
- Impartiality in source and method choices:
  - Article 10 provides statutory basis for independent selection of sources and methods and decisions about dissemination (verbatim: "When implementing the Programme, the state statistical bodies are autonomous and shall not seek or take instructions from state and local bodies notably in the selection of data sources, statistical methods, in the contents, form and time of dissemination and in the application of statistical confidentiality.")
  - Statute paragraph 8 grants the SSC rights "to select the source and method of data acquisition ... to determine the form and time of its dissemination ..."

### Transparency (1.2)
- Legal documentation:
  - The Law on Official Statistics (as amended, October 20, 2006) and the Statute on the State Statistical Committee (November 24, 2005) specify comprehensively the terms and conditions which statistics are collected, processed and disseminated.
- Pre-release access and dissemination:
  - "The monthly CPI figures are released to all users simultaneously via the SSC website."
  - "All outputs of the SSC are clearly identified as such, including in republication of its CPI data on the website of the NBA."
- Advance notice of methodological changes:
  - There is an established pattern of annual CPI rebasing.
  - "The SSC gives notice to users of the introduction of an upcoming annual weight update in the monthly price statistics bulletin the month before the update takes effect."
  - Item lists are reviewed annually and updates are announced in the December issue of the monthly price statistics bulletin (containing January–November data) prior to implementation in January.

### Ethical standards (1.3)
- Staff behavior rules:
  - Article 25: "The staff of the state statistical bodies shall be forbidden to perform additional work in any enterprise, institution or organisation (excluding scientific or teaching activities) or to exercise entrepreneurial activity."
  - Article 26: penalties for not observing the statistical law.
  - Article 28: "staff may not divulge confidential information even after they leave the employment of the SSC."

### 2. Methodological soundness

### Concepts and definitions (2.1)
- "The concepts and definitions used are generally in line with internationally accepted standards and guidelines as defined by the CPI Manual."

### Scope (2.2)
- "The scope of the CPI expenditure concepts coincide with household final consumption expenditures in the national accounts for all categories of goods and services (including goods and services employers provide as in-kind compensation)."
- Owner-occupied housing: "The SSC approach to owner occupied housing can be characterized as a partial user cost approach to imputed rentals and thus imputed rentals are in scope for the Azerbaijan CPI."

### Classification/sectorization (2.3)
- Institutional units and transactions classified in line with the System of National Accounts 1993 (1993 SNA).
- "The Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) has been used as the classification system for the HBS since 2002 and in the CPI since 2003."

### Basis for recording (2.4)
- Market prices: "The HBS and retail sales statistics, which are the basis for the CPI weights, as well as the CPI price collections themselves, measure consumption at purchasers’ prices."
- Accrual basis: "Expenditures and price observations pertain to the years and months in which households acquired ownership of the goods or received the services the purchased."
- Grossing/netting: CPI weights for consumer durables are consistent with national accounts treatment of expenditures on new durables plus acquisitions less disposals in secondary markets; these weights applied to price indexes for new durables items in the CPI.

### 3. Accuracy and reliability

### Source data (3.1)
- HBS frame and coverage:
  - HBS sample frame derived from the 1999 Census of Population and is updated when enumerators find new households.
  - Coverage of the HBS frame is estimated in excess of 95 percent of all households.
  - Survey sample: "about 4400 households each quarter," allowing annual CPI weight updates.
  - HBS covers both urban and rural areas; households selected using systematic random sampling technique, stratified by region.
  - Resident foreigners are not included in the HBS; undercoverage estimated at "2.5 percent"; retail sales data cover resident foreigners’ transactions.
- Price collection scope and scale:
  - "Some 9,500 outlets are covered, selected by the sales volumes observed in the SSC Trade Division Surveys."
  - Prices are collected for "569 different products in each of the 54 CPI regions, comprising more than 130,000 quotes per month."
  - The survey does not use point of purchase information; household travel between CPI areas for shopping is thought to be small for items with significant expenditure weight.
- Representativeness and sampling:
  - Both HBS and retail establishment surveys use standard designs producing representative samples of their target populations.
  - Retail establishments surveyed within a sample of districts representing the 54 CPI survey regions which aggregate to 11 economic regions.
- Source data conformity:
  - The HBS framework is consistent with CPI requirements.
  - Price collection frequency: weekly for all food items, monthly for almost all other items; utilities, education and health collected at less than monthly and generally at annual frequency.
  - HBS covers all resident private households except those headed by non-Azerbaijani citizens (estimated exclusion "2.5 percent").
  - HBS expenditures are adjusted to be consistent with national accounts household expenditure by product, with exclusion of rental value of owner-occupied housing and net household purchases of houses and apartments; includes building materials.
- Timeliness:
  - "HBS data for the previous year are compiled as weights for the CPI by February of the current year and incorporated into March CPI data by the April release."
  - "Prices for the previous month are normally collected within five days of the current month."

*Source: _cr08273 - 0.3       Relevance (excerpt).*

### 3.2 Assessment of source data

### 3.2 Assessment of source data

### Source-data assessment and coverage
- Source data assessed routinely for coverage, sample error, response error, and nonsampling error; results monitored and made available to guide statistical processes.
- Household Budget Survey (HBS):
  - High unit response from households.
  - Contains expected amounts of item nonresponse and under-reporting on sensitive questions and in high and low income groups; this is routinely monitored.
  - Collects expenditure data at the COICOP five-digit level since the beginning of 2002.
  - HBS weights underpin CPI weights, which are based on household consumption as measured in the 1993 SNA, with expenditures on housing materials and housing repair and maintenance services replacing the rent of owner-occupied dwellings.
  - The HBS sample frame excludes households headed by noncitizens of Azerbaijan from the 1999 Population Census, resulting in a 2.5 percent undercoverage; the retail sales survey covers all retail expenditure in Azerbaijan and essentially offsets this undercoverage.
- Retail establishment sample is continually augmented as establishments go out of business or change locations.
- CPI price returns are closely monitored to assess whether items have temporarily or permanently disappeared; the items sample is reviewed annually and updated as required.

### Compilation and statistical techniques
- Valuation is at purchasers’ prices, including production for own consumption.
- Since 2005, elementary level indexes are calculated using the geometric means of observed commodity price relatives.
- A modified Laspeyres formula is used to calculate aggregate indexes; the index is rebased during February–March of each year using weights compiled from the HBS from the previous year and is linked to the March index.
- Treatment of missing and unavailable prices:
  - Temporarily missing prices are imputed using the group mean approach—estimating the missing price using the average price change of the other items in the subgroup.
  - When a product reappears, calculations return to using its observed price.
  - Imputations for seasonal products use the same group mean algorithm.
  - Products permanently unavailable are replaced and the price change of the replacement is linked in using the overlap method; direct comparisons with explicit quality adjustments are not made between unavailable items and noncomparable replacements.
- In January 2008:
  - Nine new products were introduced into the item sample.
  - 25 old products considered no longer representative were dropped (generally on the basis of the 2007 HBS).
- Commodity specifications used for price collections are sufficient to ensure comparability month to month.
- The reference base of price relatives is adjusted to the reference period of the weights when linking the annually rebased index (internationally standard methodology).

### Treatment of owner-occupied housing in CPI and alternatives
- Current CPI treatment:
  - Expenditures on owner-occupied housing in the CPI are represented by expenditures for maintenance and repair of the dwelling (COICOP 04.3).
  - National accounts use imputed rentals (COICOP 04.2).
- User cost concept stated as:
  - COICOP 04.2 Imputed rentals =
    - Real interest on funds invested in the dwelling (at the current market value of the unit)
    - + COICOP 04.3 Expenditures on maintenance and repair of the dwelling.
  - Where “Real interest on funds invested in the dwelling” is the difference between the interest forgone on invested financial capital and the expected appreciation.
- SSC practice and partial user-cost coverage:
  - SSC publishes and includes in the overall CPI a price index for COICOP 04.3 (Maintenance and repair of the dwelling); thus CPI takes a partial user cost approach by covering the maintenance and repair component.
- Alternative approaches and considerations:
  - Rental equivalence: imputes rental value of owner-occupied units as actual rental on closely similar rented units; used in SSC national accounts estimate by averaging rental per rented housing unit within each district and imputing to owner-occupied units in that district.
  - User cost: builds rental value from cost of ownership components (maintenance and repairs, forgone interest minus expected appreciation).
  - Net acquisitions approach (CPI Manual, Chapter 14): equivalent to household residential capital formation from national accounts; weight = net acquisitions of houses by households by type and location + value of major improvements; price = purchase price of housing units by type and location. House price change is thought to be significant in larger urban areas of Azerbaijan; SSC staff have considered a house price index as a separate product but prefer to maintain the consumption orientation of the CPI.
- Evidence and cautions:
  - Recent published evidence from the CPI shows lower inflation in actual rentals (rental equivalence) than inflation in maintenance and repair items currently used.
  - Both maintenance-and-repair and actual rentals data would need assessment before moving imputed-rentals weight.
  - Maintenance and repair excludes the real interest component of user cost.
  - Rental sample representativeness needs examination for changes in rental value of owned housing stock.
  - Impact on overall index depends on pricing approach chosen and whether national accounts imputed rent estimate (COICOP 04.2) is larger or smaller than the maintenance-and-repair estimate (COICOP 04.3) currently used.

- Recommendation (housing measurement):
  - The SSC should technically evaluate the rental equivalence and user cost approaches to covering housing services consumption of owner-occupant households and the net acquisitions approach to households’ capital formation expenditures for dwellings.
  - Collaboration between the Price Statistics Division, National Accounts Division, and Scientific-Methodology Council is essential.
  - A specific advisory expert group of SSC and outside experts on housing could be useful in the evaluation.

### Validation, revisions, and monitoring
- Intermediate results validation:
  - Changes in the CPI are cross-checked against the producer price index for comparable product categories; comparisons show broadly similar price developments.
  - Unusual price movements are constantly monitored to determine whether they arise from data entry error, commodity misspecification, or regional problems; unusual reports are verified with regional/district manager and, as required, with the price collector.
  - Unusual geographical trends are monitored for realism.
- Revisions:
  - Between rebasing, revisions are rare and used to correct errors.
  - SSC reviews changes in CPI weights at each annual rebasing, identifying direction and amount of change in product shares.
  - Item sample reviewed annually and revised if necessary.
  - In the April monthly bulletin introducing the reweighted index each year, a brief description is provided of items increasing and decreasing in share, in direction but not amount.

### Serviceability: periodicity, timeliness, consistency
- Periodicity and timeliness:
  - CPI periodicity: monthly (in line with SDDS recommendations).
  - Monthly figures are published between the 12th and 15th of the following month, within the SDDS requirement of one month.
- Consistency:
  - CPI is internally consistent in aggregation by product and by region (CPI region, economic region, and Azerbaijan).
  - Consistent time series available back to 1995 (official CPI first published then); an unofficial series of lesser quality is available back to 1990.
  - CPI is conceptually consistent with national accounts household final consumption expenditure except for owner-occupied dwellings; reconciliation is possible accounting for this and National Accounts Division adjustments (retail trade survey and adjustments for under-reporting in HBS).

### Accessibility, dissemination, and metadata
- Data dissemination and publications:
  - CPI price index data are published for 569 goods and services and for the 11 economic regions, with charts in some publications.
  - No seasonally adjusted series are produced.
  - Published expenditure estimates from the HBS provide information relevant to CPI weights at the two-digit COICOP level.
  - CPI monthly publication usually appears by the 12th of the month, earlier in electronic form (pdf); English-language tables appear in the SDDS section of the website.
  - Azerbaijani-language releases are timely and present detailed tables and electronic documents reasonably well organized on the SSC website.
  - English-language material is reasonably supported though organization could be more logical.
- Advance release calendar and SDDS compliance:
  - SSC published a sample “not later than” advance release calendar on its website in SDDS format covering an eight month period ending January 2008; format meets SDDS requirements except SSC does not update release date to a specific day by the last working day of the week preceding the release.
  - To meet SDDS requirements, the release calendar should be current within three months of the date of release.
  - Recommendation (release calendar): Keeping the SDDS advance release calendar current and making this site known through user outreach could improve user confidence and align practice with SDDS requirements.
- Simultaneous release and access on request:
  - Statistics are released to all users simultaneously on the SSC website.
  - Unpublished tables can be provided upon request if confidentiality is not violated; CPI price index data are already published at a high level of detail (569 items), but index weights, while internally available at the same level, are not publicly available.
  - Article 22 of the Law on Official Statistics: “aggregates shall comprise at least three units and the share of one unit in an aggregate must not exceed 85% of the total.” SSC decides how to ensure this disclosure criterion for releases.
  - HBS data are published at two-digit COICOP level and may be available on request at higher levels of detail.
- Metadata and user assistance:
  - Metadata have been posted on the IMF’s GDDS website since February 2001 and were most recently updated in November 2007.
  - The monthly CPI publication contains very detailed information; statistics at highly aggregate and intermediate levels are also available.
  - Contact persons’ names and telephone numbers are published in the monthly and annual prices publications.
  - The “Catalog of Statistical Publications” is available annually in hard copy and on the SSC website; it contains contact addresses, phone numbers, and expected publication dates of SSC products.

*Source: _cr08273 - 3.2 Assessment of source data*

### 2.4   Basis for recording

### _cr08273 - 2.4   Basis for recording

### 2.4 Basis for recording — key point
- The CPI’s de facto approach to the imputed rent of households owning their own dwellings does not match the national accounts approach.

### 3. Accuracy and reliability — annotated checklist items
- 3.1 Source data — X
- 3.2 Assessment of source data — X
- 3.3 Statistical techniques — X
  - Note: See the substantive discrepancy above regarding imputed rent treatment.
- 3.4 Assessment and validation of source data — X
- 3.5 Assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs — X
- 3.6 Revision studies — X

### 4. Serviceability — annotated checklist items and observation
- 4.1 Periodicity and timeliness — X
- 4.2 Consistency — X
- 4.3 Revision policy and practice — X

### 5. Accessibility — annotated checklist items and user-facing observation
- 5.1 Data accessibility — X
  - Although releases are timely and consistent, and although there is a sample release schedule in SDDS format on the SSC website, it is not kept up to date; hence, although users are thought to broadly know when to expect the CPI release, the practice falls short of SDDS requirements.
- 5.2 Metadata accessibility — X
- 5.3 Assistance to users — X

### Appendix I. Data Quality Assessment Framework — selected elements and indicators
- 0. Prerequisites of quality
  - 0.1.1 The responsibility for collecting, processing, and disseminating the statistics is clearly specified.
  - 0.1.2 Data sharing and coordination among data-producing agencies are adequate.
  - 0.1.3 Individual reporters’ data are to be kept confidential and used for statistical purposes only.
  - 0.1.4 Statistical reporting is ensured through legal mandate and/or measures to encourage response.
  - 0.2.1 Staff, facilities, computing resources, and financing are commensurate with statistical programs.
  - 0.2.2 Measures to ensure efficient use of resources are implemented.
  - 0.3.1 The relevance and practical utility of existing statistics in meeting users’ needs are monitored.
  - 0.4.1 Processes are in place to focus on quality.
  - 0.4.2 Processes are in place to monitor the quality of the statistical program.
  - 0.4.3 Processes are in place to deal with quality considerations in planning the statistical program.
- 1. Assurances of integrity
  - 1.1.1 Statistics are produced on an impartial basis.
  - 1.1.2 Choices of sources and statistical techniques, as well as decisions about dissemination, are informed solely by statistical considerations.
  - 1.1.3 The appropriate statistical entity is entitled to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of statistics.
  - 1.2.1 The terms and conditions under which statistics are collected, processed, and disseminated are available to the public.
  - 1.2.2 Internal governmental access to statistics prior to their release is publicly identified.
  - 1.2.3 Products of statistical agencies/units are clearly identified as such.
  - 1.2.4 Advance notice is given of major changes in methodology, source data, and statistical techniques.
  - 1.3.1 Guidelines for staff behavior are in place and are well known to the staff.
- 2. Methodological soundness
  - 2.1.1 The overall structure in terms of concepts and definitions follows internationally accepted standards, guidelines, or good practices.
  - 2.2.1 The scope is broadly consistent with internationally accepted standards, guidelines, or good practices.
  - 2.3.1 Classification/sectorization systems used are broadly consistent with internationally accepted standards, guidelines, or good practices.
  - 2.4.1 Market prices are used to value flows and stocks.
  - 2.4.2 Recording is done on an accrual basis.
  - 2.4.3 Grossing/netting procedures are broadly consistent with internationally accepted standards, guidelines, or good practices.
- 3. Accuracy and reliability (selected indicators)
  - 3.1.1 Source data are obtained from comprehensive data collection programs that take into account country-specific conditions.
  - 3.1.2 Source data reasonably approximate the definitions, scope, classifications, valuation, and time of recording required.
  - 3.1.3 Source data are timely.
  - 3.2.1 Source data—including censuses, sample surveys, and administrative records—are routinely assessed for coverage, sample error, response error, and nonsampling error; results are monitored and made available to guide statistical processes.
  - 3.3.1 Data compilation employs sound statistical techniques to deal with data sources.
  - 3.3.2 Other statistical procedures (e.g., data adjustments and transformations, and statistical analysis) employ sound statistical techniques.
  - 3.4.1 Intermediate results are validated against other information, where applicable.
  - 3.4.2 Statistical discrepancies in intermediate data are assessed and investigated.
  - 3.4.3 Statistical discrepancies and other potential indicators or problems in statistical outputs are investigated.
  - 3.5.1 Studies and analyses of revisions are carried out routinely and used internally to inform statistical processes (see also 4.3.3).
- 4. Serviceability (selected indicators)
  - 4.1.1 Periodicity follows dissemination standards.
  - 4.1.2 Timeliness follows dissemination standards.
  - 4.2.1 Statistics are consistent within the dataset.
  - 4.2.2 Statistics are consistent or reconcilable over a reasonable period of time.
  - 4.2.3 Statistics are consistent or reconcilable with those obtained through other data sources and/or statistical frameworks.
  - 4.3.1 Revisions follow a regular and transparent schedule.
  - 4.3.2 Preliminary and/or revised data are clearly identified.
  - 4.3.3 Studies and analyses of revisions are made public (see also 3.5.1).
- 5. Accessibility (selected indicators)
  - 5.1.1 Statistics are presented in a way that facilitates proper interpretation and meaningful comparisons.
  - 5.1.2 Dissemination media and format are adequate.
  - 5.1.3 Statistics are released on a preannounced schedule.
  - 5.1.4 Statistics are made available to all users at the same time.
  - 5.1.5 Statistics not routinely disseminated are made available upon request.
  - 5.2.1 Documentation on concepts, scope, classifications, basis of recording, data sources, and statistical techniques is available, and differences from internationally accepted standards, guidelines, or good practices are annotated.
  - 5.2.2 Levels of detail are adapted to the needs of the intended audience.
  - 5.3.1 Contact points for each subject field are publicized.
  - 5.3.2 Catalogs of publications, documents, and other services, including information on any charges, are widely available.

### Appendix II. Users’ Survey — summary findings
- Number of responses: 21 responses were received on a nonscientific user survey of banks, non-governmental organizations, embassies, multilateral financial institutions, the press, nonfinancial corporations, and government agencies.
- Broad conclusions:
  - A significant fraction of the surveyed users found the timeliness and periodicity of the CPI, and the user services of the SSC in providing information on request, to be good.
  - A number of users were not fully confident the index has adequate geographical or product coverage or, more broadly, accurately measures inflation.
  - With a few exceptions, the negative responses were not specific as to the sources of disquiet about the accuracy of the index.
  - Some users could not easily find information on the index methodology, while others could not find the data they were looking for.
- Recommendation emerging from the survey:
  - The results highlight the need for a communications strategy to:
    - make information on index coverage and methodology more easily available to the public;
    - make users aware of where to obtain the information they are seeking; and
    - continue to conduct outreach to influential user groups to explain the CPI.
  - The dialog with users may yield useful information about the sources of some users’ lack of confidence in the index.

*Source: _cr08273 - 2.4   Basis for recording*

---


_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/scr/2008/_cr08273.pdf_