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In general there is no way to work out the base for an Index if it has not been stated in the table title or footnotes. Most indices from the Office for National Statistics are periodically rebased to reflect changes in the composition of the relevant basket of goods, which make up the index. Shortly there will be a major change in the way constant price series are calculated internationally. Instead of using constant prices in a particular base year e.g. 1990. ONS and other national statistical agencies are moving on to a system of "Annual Chain linking" - under this system the basket will always reflect the basket of goods which is currently consumed and past figures will be recalculated to reflect current consumption patterns. This will be a nightmare for those folks who are trying to maintain databases!? Further details of this can be read in a chapter by Helen Shanks (Head of National Accounts Training at ONS) on "National Statistics in the UK". This is in the book "Essential Data Skills for Business and Management" - details of which can be found on: http://www.statsed.co.uk/essentialdata/essential_data.htm Steve Hurd ----- Original Message ----- From: "Simon Foley" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 4:56 AM Subject: Re: Indeces > Neither of those responses help very much. I did some looking and could > only come up with individual numbers rather than a page that gave the > base year of well known indices. > > > Eg at http://www.cats.edu.ph/~nscb5/technotes/cpi.html I found that the > CPI in the US > > "C. Base Period The CPI series constructed by NSO since 1945 has > undergone several revisions. The 1988-based CPI, the current series, is > the sixth rebasing." > > From > http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/Economic_Data_and_Tools/GDP_Deflators/data > _gdp_backgd.cfm > > I found "ONS currently uses 1995 as a base year for GDP (ie GDP at > constant prices)". > > It seems that they rebase often in cases where the headline figure is > not the one quoted eg. RPI. Sorry to not be of much help either. > > Simon > > > ==================================== > Simon Foley > E-mail: [log in to unmask] > Phone 66 2 398 0200 > Fax 66 2 399 3179 > ====================================