Average retail prices

Table 11 shows, for the current month and the two previous months, average prices for selected food, household supply and personal care items and for cigarettes.

Prices for these items are collected as part of the regular monthly CPI survey. Prices for the selected food, household supply and personal care items are observed in food supermarkets, while prices for cigarettes are collected in supermarkets, department stores, drug stores and tobacco shops. Average prices for each commodity are calculated as a weighted average of the average prices in the observed cities using the population of these urban centres as weights.

The commodities which are priced can vary in quality between outlets or between urban centres. This is the reason why average prices are not published for each of those urban centres. Brands and outlets can also vary from month to month. Therefore, average prices may not necessarily be fully comparable from one month to another and should not be used as an appropriate measure of pure price change through time. A matched commodity and outlet sample is used for the CPI to determine the pure price movement of commodities through time.