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Economic News Release
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Attachment A: The 1998 Consumer Price Index Revision

1. Revise PSU and C&S Samples, Update Market Baskets

This project addresses the need to select new Primary Sampling Units to correspond to the 1990 Decennial Census and to update the market basket expenditure patterns to 1993-1995. The revised index will be published for January 1998 in February 1998.

2. Consumer Expenditure Survey and Systems Redesign

The new system will be completed in 1997. After extensive testing, the system is scheduled to enter full production in October 1999.

3. Revise Housing Sample

The listing and screening of the segments selected for the sampling of rental units will begin July 1997. The pricing of rental units initiated for the revised CPI design will begin June 1998, and the January 1999 CPI will be the first one incorporating the new housing sample.

4. Redesign the Current Housing Estimation System

An improved Price Relative Computation system for rent and rental equivalency (REQ) will be introduced along with a new data processing system for data review and imputation. These new systems will be incorporated into the index with the release of January 1999 data.

5. Institute Computer Assisted Data Collection Technology

Electronic data collection and transmission will first be used in the listing and screening of the housing sample segments. It will be used for pricing rental units in June 1998, and beginning in the summer of 1999 for the pricing of C&S.

6. Transition for C&S Area Rotation to Item Rotation

The use of computer assisted telephone interviews will facilitate the resampling of approximately 20 percent of the products and services outlets in every CPI area each year. Currently, one-fifth of the areas have their entire items and outlets resampled every year. This change will begin early 1999.