I refer to the letter Nothing figures in inflation figures particularly the ending statement:'And then, there is still the question of how accurate or representative of reality the CPI figures are.

I for one was always amazed at how the CPI remained in the low single digits when everything from food and drink to tolls seemed to be increasing by at least 10%'.

I am reminded of a conversation I had with an old classmate who was then a senior staff of the Statistics Department. He was part of the team responsible for churning out CPI and inflation figures and I asked him a question similar to Ganesh Sahathevan's statements quoted above.

He replied by agreeing that prices of housing and food in Kuala Lumpur, where I lived, and other major towns, had moved up substantially more that the official CPI and inflation figures.

Then he reminded me that the official CPI and inflation figures were for the whole of Malaysia, not just for KL and other major towns. He told me that prices in the rural areas and many smaller towns and villages were still stable, thus averaging down the CPI and inflation figures.