SOARING inflation in China appears to be slowing down but the government continues to be tight-lipped over changes made to the consumer price index (CPI).
CPI is a broader measure of inflation compared with the retail price index which, unlike the CPI, includes services.
An official with China Statistics Consultants said yesterday in Beijing it was the policy of the State Statistical Bureau to adjust once every year the weightings of items composing the CPI.
China Statistics Consultants is an information arm of the bureau.
'Changes are made at the start of each year based on the aggregate income and expenditure of the previous year,' said the official.
He would not say whether it was the bureau's policy to hide details of changes, but Hong Kong-based economists said no changes to weightings had been revealed so far, except for the names of the CPI items themselves.