The Consumer Price Index “is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer ... leave them out of the equation to come up with ...

"According to the formula, COLAs are based on increases ... has been called substitution bias. "A fixed market basket measure like the CPI assumes that, contrary to standard economic theory ...

The statement noted that the exercise is vital to ensure that the CPI basket, which tracks the prices of goods and services, accurately represents present-day spending habits. It noted that the ...