New Consumer Price Index will reflect true situation on the ground

PETALING JAYA: The Consumer Price Index (CPI), currently being reviewed by the government, will reflect the true situation on the ground, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.

He said it would be announced once the reviewed CPI had undergone a thorough study.

He said there was strong arguments that there was a need for the CPI to be reviewed towards making it more relevant especially for people living in urban areas, in particular the urban poor.

“We are examining into that (CPI) because there is a strong argument that this has to be reviewed with regard to the real situation on the ground. We are studying this very very carefully, we don’t want to make any mistakes. I am in no position to say what is the outcome at the moment,” he told reporters after opening the National Summit On Urban Poor and Low Income Group.

Earlier, in his speech, Abdullah said the government was reviewing the CPI towards making it more helpful and relevant especially for people living in urban areas.

“I have directed the government to look into various facets of the CPI, including re-assessing its composition, breaking down inflation into its components such as food and non-food inflation and publishing inflation rates for different geographies and for urban and rural areas,” he said.

On rising inflation, the prime minister said his main worry was over the two major crisis confronting the world today — the unprecedented rise of oil price and the world food shortage.

“One is the rising price of oil to a level which is unprecedented. It’s four times what it was before when everything was normal. The situation is bad at the moment. And there’s no one who can guarantee the price of oil is not going to go up for as long as the futures market and the futures traders are very active. But there are many measures that have to be taken into account but this is the problem we are facing at the moment. And if things are going to become worse, then of course we’ll have more difficulties to face. But we have to understand this is not our creation. What is important is how we respond to it, the crisis at the moment,” said Abdullah, who is also Finance Minister.

Abdullah said the government was making continuous adjustments to manage the situation but it was difficult due to market unpredictability.

He advised Malaysians to be cautious with regard to electricity usage and be thrifty when spending on particular food items.

“I think we have a tendency to waste a lot of things. You know how Malaysians are. You look at the kenduri (feast), you waste a lot of food. People take a lot of food from the buffet table, a huge amount on their plate. So greedy want to finish everything but they only eat half. It’s a waste, it’s a bad habit. Wasting is a very bad habit,” he said.

He then gave an example of how the Japanese only switched on the lights in the rooms they were using, unlike Malaysians who tend to switch on all the lights in their home.

He then pointed to the closed curtains in the room where he was holding the press conference and asked why the curtains were closed when there was ample sunlight to brighten up the room.

“It’s a waste of so much electricity by switching on so many lights,” he added.

— Bernama