The council's cost-of-living index doesn't measure inflation but instead compares prices for 57 goods and services bought by households where middle managers live.
Thus, superlative index numbers are used to provide a fairly close approximation to the underlying cost-of-living index number in a wide range of circumstances.
A cost-of-living index would measure changes over time in the amount that consumers need to spend to reach a certain utility level or standard of living.
There are many different methodologies that have been developed to approximate cost-of-living indexes, including methods that allow for substitution among items as relative prices change.
The retail prices involved in the cost-of-living index, being relatively sticky, do not afford all the information necessary for regulating the volume of money.
Solid-waste-management and other charges should be linked to the cost-of-living index, along with levy of administrative charges for chronic littering.
Macroeconomic data not derived from the national accounts are also of wide interest, for example some cost-of-living indexes, the unemployment rate, and the labor force participation rate.
