Stats SA outlines digital plans
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) announced in a press statement on Friday, 11 October 2013, that it has decided to “explore possible digital alternatives to the paper-based collection which currently informs the [Consumer Price Index (CPI)].”
According to Stats SA, the aim is to equip its field force with hand-held devices which will be able to remotely download and upload data.
Stats SA said that CPI, which it publishes monthly, is South Africa’s primary measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
“Feeding into the inflation rate are approximately 65,000 prices, collected by 100 field workers across more than 20 different towns, cities and rural areas,” Stats SA said.
“For each individual price, a paper questionnaire is generated in Pretoria, dispatched to a regional office and sent back to Pretoria for capturing once the data has been collected,” the government department said.
To kick start the move to digital collection, Stats SA said it has advertised for “Expressions of Interest” from possible suppliers of digital data collection technology.
Stats SA said the advertisement can be found on its website. and that there is a compulsory information session on 17 October at 11:00 at the Stats SA office in Pretoria.
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