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NEWS
Observations: New Cost-of-Living Index in the Works
by A. Turgeman
The Histadrut, which has initiated various unusual steps
recently to demonstrate its existence, announced that it has
decided to publish a new cost-of-living index within three
months designed to replace the Cost-of-Living Index
published by the Central Bureau for Statistics.
Histadrut Chairman Amir Peretz made the announcement at the
Sixth Conference on Employment Issues in Eilat. Peretz says
the index published by the Central Bureau for Statistics
does not properly reflect inflation in the economy. "The new
index will be published on a monthly basis, and will be the
only one used for negotiations between employers and
employees in the State of Israel," says Peretz, who issued
instructions for a special Histadrut staff to be assembled
to determine the components of the index.
The Histadrut Chairman lodged sharp criticism against the
Cost-of-Living Index. "Does anyone think that I will come to
terms with an index in which construction is the central
component, and other components are not considered
important? The construction component is in decline, and
wages in Israel are being set based on a component that is
not relevant to the ability of the worker to subsist."
Now other figures will inevitably emerge from the woodwork
and will try to put together a made-to-order index. Every
sector of the economy and of the population would like the
index to accurately reflect the nature of their specific
monthly expenses. So far a single, uniform index was
accepted as the determinant factor of fluctuations and
prices in the economy. Perhaps now we can expect various
other indexes to follow in the footsteps of the Histadrut's
index.
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