Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS)

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
   


Decrease in the prices of basic food commodities within Food Groups push the overall CPI for Palestine to decrease by 0.47% during June 2020 compared with May 2020 (by 1.18% in Gaza Strip, by 0.31% in the West Bank**, and with a slight decrease by 0.06% in Jerusalem J1*).

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

 

Sub Groups	Percent Change
Dried Vegetables	- 14.15%
Fresh Fruit	- 7.92%
Fresh Vegetables	- 4.89%
Potatoes and other Tubers	- 2.91%
Fish, Live, Fresh, Chilled, or Frozen	-2.36%
Fresh Chicken	- 1.51%
Eggs	- 1.33%
Gas	- 1.10%
Liquid Fuel for Car " Petrol "	+ 8.86%
Liquid Fuel for Car " Diesel "	+7.57%

 

The Palestinian CPI during June 2020 decreased by 1.95% compared with June 2019 (by 1.98% in the West Bank**, by 1.97% in Gaza Strip, and by 0.93% in Jerusalem J1*).

 

 

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outbreak, and the implemented measures to limit its spread, the data collection process for Consumer Price Index had been replaced by data collection via phone and websites for all sale outlets in all of the Palestinian Governorates instead of collecting data face to face from the field.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 Palestine, reached 3,094 outlets in June 2020. Thus, in light of the temporary closure of many outlets in the last week of June due to applying the Palestinian emergency plan, the percentage for the completion of data collection process is as follows:

3.     

 

 

4.    The number of price observations collected to compile the Palestinian Consumer Price index is 38,395 price observations; where 96.20% was collected in June 2020. Hence, the percentages are as follows within the Palestinian regions:

 

 

 

5.    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 have been estimated based on the change in the prices of the sources that share the same items, which are collected from that source.

6.    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