Some proposals to improve the Consumer Price Index

The Consumer Price Index is a good index for its intended purpose-a measure of average price changes in the goods and services that consumers purchase . Some of the complaints made-that the CPI does not reflect the price changes for this or that group properly-are a misinterpretation of the purpose of the CPI and would not provide desirable guidelines for revising the index. Nor would any of the other available price indexes serve as well the purpose stated above for which the epf is designed . While the CPI has serious limitations as a cost-of-living index for escalation purposes to hold standards of living constant, we know of no practical remedies for many of the most serious limitations . In view of the wide-ranging public functions served by the CPI, nothing is to be gained by indiscriminate criticism of it that could undermine the public's confidence in its acceptability . We believe that a constructive approach is to focus on feasible improvements . Over the years, the Cpl has been improved, and there is room to improve it further. Our review of problems