Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 234: To ask the Minister for Finance if he has undertaken further studies with a view to tackling unseen inflation arising from goods or services excluded from the consumer price index; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33534/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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As I have outlined before, the director general of the Central Statistics Office has sole responsibility for and is independent in deciding the statistical methodology and professional standards to be used in compiling the consumer price index, CPI. The CPI measures, in index form, monthly changes in the cost of purchasing a representative basket of consumer goods and services. My Department is forecasting that CPI inflation will average 2.4% this year. On an EU harmonised basis, inflation is projected to average 2.2% this year, broadly in line with the euro area average.