stats sa in hot water
29 April 2008
Statistics South Africa should appear before the finance portfolio committee to explain alleged unreliability in the Producer Price Index, said the Democratic Alliance. "Reliable official data is essential to policy-making," said DA finance spokesperson Kobus Marais.
"This is even more the case in the current high inflation environment - where inflation figures are critical in monetary policy decision-making." Marais said the DA had written to finance portfolio committee chairperson Nhlanhla Musa Nene to request that statistician-general Pali Lehohla appear before the Committee to address the credibility and reliability of data released by Stats SA. "The DA has requested detailed information on how the consumer and producer inflation series have been overhauled.
The party wanted information on what problems were experienced in this regard and what measures were implemented to deal with these problems. The Star Business Report said there were queries over some of the data released for the Producer Price Index.
Lehlohla told The Star that there had been a recent overhaul in the PPI figures which had led to a "unexpectedly large range of problems". However deputy director-general economic statistics Rashad Carim said that overall the PPI was "reliable and credible".