Rosstat Increases the Number of Goods and Services Estimated When Calculating Inflation
In 2021, Rosstat will have a few service prices for 556 goods and services, which is 36 commodity items more than last year. This is the first major update to the list in recent years.
There has been a significant increase in the number of medicines and medical products, as well as essential goods and hygiene products. Five of them - Azithromycin, Ceftriaxone, Oseltamivir (Nomides), Apixaban (Eliquis), vitamin D3 - are used in the assessment of patients with the coronavirus infection.
The new list includes sanitary and hygienic masks, hand sanitizer and disposable syringes. A range of medical procedures (gastroscopy, MRI, or CT diagnostics) are included, as well as home nursing services for the sick and elderly. At the same time, Rosstat stopped monitoring prices for mercury thermometers, replacing them with mercury-free ones.
The list of hygiene products is supplemented with shower gel, liquid toilet soap, deodorant, disinfectant for surfaces (floors, walls, furniture) in the form of a spray, gel (based on chlorine, aldehyde, or alcohol cleaning), paper napkins, and handkerchiefs.
An important step was the inclusion in the monthly CPI estimate of subscriptions to online and video services, as well as car sharing/car rental services.
Expanding the list of excursion programs and tours both in Russia and abroad - to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates - will make it possible to better assess the dynamics of the development of the tourism business. The cost of living in a hotel will be assessed in a wide range - from a hotel to a hotel in a five-star hotel.
At the same time, some products that are no longer in demand among consumers are excluded from the list. Among them are fur hats, push-button mobile phones, upholstered furniture sets, carpets.
Also, since January 1, 2021, the number of weekly monitored positions has increased from 102 to 106.
4 services related to tourism have been added (instead of simple services - a day of stay in a hotel, 5 types are distinguished - from a hostel to a five-star hotel)
As before, prices for 44 types of products, 10 types of drugs, 3 brands of gasoline (AI-92, AI-95, and AI-98) and diesel fuel, 7 housing and communal services, 4 types of urban services / municipal passenger transportation are still recorded weekly. (city bus, tram, trolleybus, metro), as well as for non-food products, including personal hygiene products and necessities, tourist trips (organized tourism) to Greece and China, health and wellness services (day of stay in a sanatorium and day of stay in a holiday home or boarding house).
Additionally
Rosstat has stopped evaluating changes in prices for mercury thermometers by including mercury-free thermometers in the list. This is due to the fact that Russia joined the Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2014, and their production in the country has ceased since 2020.
In 2021, Rosstat will expand the number of sources for collecting information on price changes. To calculate inflation, data from cash registers will also be used. This will expand the number of stores where price monitoring will be carried out, as well as the list of monitored goods and services.