Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics continues the work on data collection and production of Consumer Price Index in light of COVID-19

(CORONA VIRUS) pandemic

 

The overall CPI for Palestine during April, 04/2020 decreased by 0.89% compared with March 2020 (by 1.24% in the West Bank**, and by 1.14% in Jerusalem J1*, while it increased by 0.39% in Gaza Strip).

 

The changes in Palestinian CPI for April 2020 were traced back to changes in prices of the following expenditure sub groups compared with previous month:

 

Sub Groups	Percent Change
Liquid Fuel for Car "Petrol"	- 17.58%
Liquid Fuel for Car "Diesel"	- 8.21%
Dried Vegetables	- 10.42%
Potatoes and other Tubers	- 9.07%
Fresh Vegetables	- 4.67%
Fresh Chicken	- 3.63%
Fish Live, Fresh, Chilled, or Frozen	- 1.37%
Short Grain Rice	- 0.83%
Eggs	+ 5.19%
Fresh Fruit	+ 1.91%

 

The Palestinian CPI during April 2020 decreased by 0.63% compared with April 2019 (by 1.28% in the West Bank**, while it increased by 1.41% in Jerusalem J1*, and by 0.34% in Gaza Strip).

 

Notice for Users:

1.    Because of CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) outbreak, and the implemented measures to limit its spread, the data collection process for Consumer Price Index had been replaced by data collection via phone and websites for all sale outlets in all of the Palestinian Governorates instead of collecting data face to face from the field.

2.    The number of sale outlets, from which Consumer Prices are collected in the West Bank** and Gaza Strip, reached 2,479 outlets in April 2020. Thus, in light of the temporary closure of many outlets due to applying the Palestinian emergency plan, the percentage for the completion of data collection process is as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.    Basic commodities price data were collected in Jerusalem J1* Governorate, where most of them concentrated on food and non-alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, fuel, gas, medicines and cleaning materials. The number of sale outlets collected in Jerusalem J1* was (127 outlets) out of the sample total number (182 outlets) in the governorate; 70% of outlets was collected.

4.    All services outlets are excluded from collecting their data for April 2020, because of quarterly collection frequency.

5.    The number of price observations collected to compile the Palestinian Consumer Price index is 38,395 price observations; where 89% was collected in April 2020. Hence, the percentages are as follows within the Palestinian regions:

 

 

 

 

6.    International recommendations are followed in estimating the missing data, which are mentioned in the Consumer Price Index guide. Moreover, the (Group Relative Method) is one of the best methods used to estimate the missing data, which is the process of estimating the prices based on the change in the prices of the remaining sources for the same category.  Accordingly, in case of the closure of an entire source on a temporary basis, all the prices of that source has estimated based on the change in the prices of the sources that share the same items, which are collected from that source.

7.    The estimate also used at the (Next Level Up in Aggregation) in case of the disappearance of the index for a whole sub-group or a higher group reaching up to the major groups that constitute the index.

 

                                       

Notes:

*Data represent those parts of Jerusalem, which were annexed by Israeli Occupation in 1967.

 

**Data exclude those parts of Jerusalem, which were annexed by Israeli Occupation in 1967.

 

Please note that the press release in English is brief compared to the Arabic version