As it is impossible to consider the prices of all goods and services purchased by households, it is necessary to select a “basket” of representative goods and services for calculating the consumer price index. The goods and services in the CPI basket of are all new products for final household consumption. They exclude second-hand items, goods acquired for investment, saving or profit making purposes, and non-consumption expenditure.

Goods and services are selected according to their percentage shares in total household expenditure derived from the latest consumption patterns of households. The selection process comprises three stages. The first stage is the selection of items occupying a relatively high percentage in the overall expenditure (such as fresh and live food, meals bought away from home, clothing and footwear, rental, household appliances, etc.). The second stage is the selection of items that only take up a small share in total expenses but are generally consumed by households (salt, sugar, festive food, management fee, liquid petroleum gas, newspaper and periodicals, medical care, hairdressing, etc.). The third stage is the selection of items where prices are set by the administration, consisting mainly of public utilities (water, electricity, telecommunications, taxi, public transport, etc.).