Make CPI more meaningful to the average Singaporean

While statistics and percentages have their use for comparison purposes, their significance to the man in the street is debatable.

News of the “longest streak of negative inflation on record”, reported in “Headline CPI falls for 21 straight months” (Aug 24), was probably met with a stony “so?” from the public.

The statistics are clothed in jargon, much of it beyond the understanding of lesser mortals, who are left wondering how they have benefited, as well as starting to worry how core inflation — tipped to pick up — will affect them.

Pragmatic Singaporeans would be better positioned to identify with concrete figures — for example, how much a particular staple item costs now, after 21 months of decline.

That the “all-items Consumer Price Index slipped 0.7 per cent year-on-year” is conveyed more easily in absolute terms: $100 last year, now $99.30.

Ask any housewife constrained by an inflexible budget and the answer would probably be that few daily essentials are any much cheaper. Despite the significant drop in global oil prices, little corresponding benefit has trickled down to the end consumer.

The “steep discounts” during the Great Singapore Sale were preceded by sales pitches offering up to 90 per cent off, which must have left consumers to speculate how much the mark-ups were before those reductions.

And with most Singaporeans housed in self-owned premises, accommodation costs can scarcely be a factor. It may be time for a more meaningful consumer index, to reflect the basic cost of everyday living more accurately for the average wage earner.