ON THE PROBLEMS OF PRICE STATISTICS

Abstract

The article is a commentary to the article by V.A. Bessonov «On the losses generated by the inflation mis-measurement» (Voprosy statistiki, 2016, no. 10); the article considers selected issues of theory of price statisics which are the basis of V.A. Bessonov analysis of CPI computed by the Rosstat; in his opinion the CPI is apparently upward biased due to the use of Laspeyres formula which does not reflect the substitution affect; he attributes in particular this bias to the change of the weights base period; he presents his estimate of the magnitude of the bais but does not clarify how it was obtained. It is worth noting in this context that many experts in index theory believe that measuring of the magnitude of the bias is problematic and comparing Laspeyres index with Fisher index might be requied for this purpose. As an important the issue of the choice of the weights base period as it is there are some other important issues of price statistics theory which are not analised by the auther. These refer to measuring of change of quality of goods which is particularly important for computation of price changes of the technological complex products such as computers, cars, cell phones and so forth. The article by V.A. Bessonov will stimulate futher discussion on price statistics theory.