2015 consumer basket contains 295 items

The National Statistics Office of Georgia, Geostat, has released the 2015 consumer basket. 

The composition of the updated 2015 consumer basket remained identical to the consumer basket of 2014, which also contained 295 items. Each year the weights of the products and services were updated to reflect any changes. 

The consumer basket was used to calculate the Consumer Price Index - the inflation rate in the country - which reflected the structure of consumption of products of an average consumer in the country.

The consumer basket for 2015 was based on the consumption structure according to the System of National Accounts. The weights of the groups and individual products (services) of the basket were based on the consumption structure of the National Accounts System and data from the Integrated Household Survey.

This year food and non-alcoholic beverages made up 30.74 percent of the consumer basket. Products in this category included rice, buckwheat, manna-croup, wheat bread, macaroni products, vermicelli, cake, waffle, toast and wheat flour. These items were the first ten products listen in this category.

Similarly, alcoholic beverages and tobacco made up 5.19 percent of the 2015 consumer basket.

The list below showed the consumption percentage for products:

Transport - 11.80 percent;

Healthcare - 9.46 percent;

Housing, water, gas, electricity and other fuels - 8.48 percent;

Recreation and culture - 7.11 percent;

Furnishings, housing appliances and equipment, and routine house maintenance - 6.43 percent;

Education - 5.03 percent;

Hotels, cafes and restaurants - 4.80 percent;

Miscellaneous goods and services - 4.50 percent;

Communication - 3.61 percent; and

Clothing and footwear - 2.89 percent.

The updated consumer basket reflected the latest consumption pattern of population, thus enhancing reliability of the Consumer Price Index (inflation).