| Sumario: | The Bureau of Labor Statistics is currently involved in a five-year program to revise the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI offers a measure of price change for a fixed market basket of goods and services. Because consumer purchasing patterns change over time as prices, income, demographics, and tastes change, the Bureau regularly uses a new Consumer Expenditure Survey to adjust the representative assortment of goods in the market basket. Changes have been made in the CPI throughout its history. The 1978 revision introduced the Point-of-Purchase Survey, which helps researchers weigh the value of product sales through each retail outlet. The revisions now being drafted, slated to appear in the January 1987 indexes, will reflect the geographic population shifts revealed by the 1980 census, the results of the 1982–84 Consumer Expenditure Survey, and the new procedures for pricing housing.
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