Speaking of these two indicators, I think we should know about PPI first. Although the popularity and influence of this indicator is not as good as CPI, and the application of this indicator to analyze the economic situation is later than CPI, in terms of its functional significance, it is indeed an indicator that is more pioneering and can influence the trend of CPI. The so-called PPI is the abbreviation of Producer Price Index, which should include the price indexes of all commodities sold by producers in agriculture, manufacturing and service industries to the commercial sector. In China, because the ex-factory price index of industrial products (that is, the ex-factory price of industrial products when they are first sold) is compiled earlier and the technology is relatively mature and perfect, we usually call it PPI for short. The object of investigation is an enterprise legal person. In Beijing, the survey involved 36 major categories, 148 middle categories and 287 sub-categories of the national economy, among which the coverage rate of major categories reached100%; There are more than 900 representative specifications, and the weight is determined according to the sales proportion in the industry. Obviously, under normal circumstances, if the ex-factory price rises, the commodity price will also rise. Therefore, PPI is the leading indicator to judge the market price. CPI is the abbreviation of consumer price index. Reflecting the relative number of price changes of consumer goods and services purchased by households and examining the final prices of social products and services are closely related to people's lives and are also of great significance to judging the economic situation. Its change rate reflects the degree of inflation or deflation to some extent. Generally speaking, inflation is considered to have occurred when prices continue to rise in an all-round way; On the contrary, it is austerity. The commodity classification of consumer price index in China is divided into eight categories according to their uses, namely, food, alcohol and tobacco, clothing, household equipment and supplies and maintenance services, medical care and personal supplies, transportation and communication, entertainment, education and cultural supplies and services, and residence. According to the consumption habits and expenditure composition of nearly10.3 million urban and rural households (nearly 60 thousand urban households and 70 thousand rural households), 262 basic categories are selected from these 8 categories. Set a certain number of representative specifications under each basic classification. At present, there are about 600 representative specifications of goods and services as routine investigation items. The weight of CPI is determined according to the proportion of household consumption expenditure. The price collection of PPI is the same as the production and financial statistics of an enterprise. Enterprises submit relevant reports to the statistical investigation department on a monthly basis, and control data quality through experience audit, logical audit and statistical law enforcement inspection. For CPI, the method of price collection is adopted, that is, the investigator collects the prices of representative specifications directly from the survey points in the drawings. The selection of CPI survey points is based on the principle of reasonable layout. All kinds of shopping malls, farmers' markets and service outlets in different regions line up from high to low according to sales volume, turnover and business scale, and equidistantly sample according to the number of surveys required. Taking Beijing as an example, 646 survey points, representing about 1500 specifications, are collected every five days in normal times and once a day when the price changes frequently. The total CPI index and classification index are calculated by layered weighted average of the collected data every month. Although PPI is getting more and more attention now, it is more concerned by scholars, officials and business people because it is aimed at enterprises. For CPI, many people in the society not only pay attention to it, but also talk about it, and there are also some voices that don't understand or understand it. A local leader once asked, "Is there pork in the price survey?" The answer is "with the tip of the back hip". The leader sarcastically said, "Don't you just eat the tip of the back buttock and not eat anywhere else?" He may think statistical work is really funny. In fact, there are many kinds of goods on the market, so we must choose representative specifications, and homogeneous goods can be quantitatively compared. Pig's head and trotters can't be compared. Others think that the representative specifications have remained unchanged for many years. In fact, in recent years, China has kept pace with the times, adjusted the representative specifications in a timely manner, and increased the expenses of automobiles, gasoline, mobile phones, computers and family services, vehicle purchase and maintenance, monthly telephone charges, cable TV fees, non-compulsory education fees, fitness activities fees, property management fees, tax payment for self-owned houses, travel expenses, Internet access fees, property management fees, educational software fees and so on. People's criticism of CPI, first of all, is inconsistent with their own feelings, saying, "I feel that many things are rising, and the range is very large." How can it be said that it has only risen a little? " In fact, the CPI in China has fluctuated greatly for more than a year. From the first few months of last year, it rose by more than 8% year-on-year, and began to decline continuously in the first half of this year, reflecting the changing process of the economy from overheating to insufficient effective demand. But CPI is a comprehensive indicator, reflecting the overall changes in the market. In April last year, the national CPI rose by 8.5% year-on-year, and the food category rose by 22. 1%, among which meat and poultry food rose by 47.9%. Meanwhile, traffic and communication decreased by 1.3%. People felt obvious about the sharp rise in food prices at that time, but they consumed more than just food, such as the prices of mobile phones, televisions, cars and bus fares. These rising or falling commodity prices together constitute the total CPI index. It is also said that for our low-income people, food consumption accounts for the bulk; The sharp rise in food prices has a much greater impact on my life than that of high-income people. Because of this, now, places like Beijing have compiled low-income price indices. For example, in July of the year before last, Beijing CPI rose by 2. 1%, and the price index of low-income groups rose by 6.3%. 3. In May last year, some media found that the figures of the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in the past six years, the annual increase of the average wage of urban workers in China was higher than CPI. Some website headlines said that the data caused doubts, and many netizens followed suit. Why do you get angry when you hear that the wage increase exceeds the price index? This is obviously based on the feeling of that time, because the national CPI rose more than 8% year-on-year, reaching the peak of that round of price increase; At the same time, because many people's wages have not increased within one year, the actual living standards have declined. I don't know if you ever thought about it. If the salary increase of most people is lower than CPI in six years or even 10, what does this mean? It means the decline of our real purchasing power, the decline of our real living standard, and the fact that most people meet the absolute poverty standard in the sense of economics. This is obviously not true, is it? Therefore, in a relatively long period of time, it is not only possible but also normal for wages to increase more than CPI. On the contrary, it is abnormal. With the motherland in mind and the world in mind, any country and region should develop and progress. As long as you admit that in a long period of time, the economy and society have developed and the living standards of most people have improved, the actual growth of income should exceed CPI. Otherwise, society will return to primitive society little by little. Should housing be included in CPI? Although according to international practice, CPI does not include house prices, some people say that China has the national conditions of China, so don't take international practice as an example. Most people who support this view have not conducted in-depth research on CPI from the theoretical and operational levels. "The house price is included in CPI", which makes no sense in theory and is not feasible in operation. Because CPI, like GDP, is a statistical indicator defined by international standards. If you change an internationally recognized indicator, it will not be called CPI. If all countries and regions randomly subvert an internationally recognized statistical indicator (including developed and developing countries) because of different national conditions, the practical significance and application value of the indicator will be greatly reduced. Even in developed countries, many people buy houses and live by themselves. Taking housing as an investment does not actually mean real investment. Because housing is a kind of real estate, it can not only be consumed for a long time, but also preserve and increase its value. Most importantly, if buying a house is included in CPI as immediate consumption, the proportion of house price will be dominant, and its weight will undoubtedly be so great as to drown out the influence of food price changes. In this way, food prices and house prices will inevitably be listed separately and observed separately. "God belongs to God and Caesar belongs to Caesar." Insist on including housing prices in CPI, is it to fully reflect price changes, or to provide a basis for policy formulation? If it is the former, we have CPI reflecting immediate consumption and housing sales price index system reflecting long-term consumption. Just analyze it together; If it is the latter, whether banks raise interest rates or take other macro-control measures, it is more conducive to taking targeted measures if both index systems exist. How to judge the economic situation and how to implement monetary policy is a matter for economists and financial departments. But no matter what the purpose is, CPI, including house price, can only cover up many actual situations, affect or even mislead the direction of decision-making.