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The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) conducts a Household Expenditure Survey (HES) once every five years to collect up-to-date information on the expenditure patterns of households in Hong Kong for updating the expenditure weights of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) series. A new round of 2014/15 HES began in late September last year.
With the launching of new products in the market and changes in people's living habits, the types of goods and services that people purchase nowadays may differ significantly from those that they bought a few years ago. The C&SD conducts an HES once every five years to ensure the expenditure weights of the CPIs can well capture such changes.
The HES is conducted for a whole year as there are seasonal variations in household expenditure patterns during the year. For instance, the expenditures of Chinese families around the Chinese New Year are usually higher than those in the rest of the year. The new round of HES will collect household expenditure data incurred during October 2014 to September 2015.
The C&SD would like to thank those households who had participated in the survey; and appeal for the support of all households that are selected for the remaining survey period. The detailed information provided by the responded households is very important for C&SD's subsequent compilation of the CPIs.
Letters will be issued to the sampled living quarters inviting the households there to participate in the survey. Interviewers, whose names are shown on the invitation letters, will call on households in the selected living quarters within two weeks after despatch of the letter to explain the purposes and data requirements of the survey. Each interviewer will carry a staff identity card and a certificate issued by the C&SD authorising him/her to conduct the survey. Householders should check carefully the identity of the interviewer before admitting him/her to their premises.
The major results of the 2014/15 HES will be available around mid-2016.
For enquiries about the 2014/15 HES, please contact the Price Analysis and Research Section of the C&SD at telephone number 3586 3600 or email address hesurvey@censtatd.gov.hk.
Ends/Monday, February 9, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:30
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