John Astin

After a career in the UK statistical service (taxation, trade and industry, national accounts) I moved to the EC statistics office, Eurostat, to head a division dealing mainly with price statistics. A new topic for me, and extremely challenging: at that time the only CPIs published by Eurostat were the non-harmonized national ones. The Maastricht Treaty – the root of the HICPs - had not yet been signed. My Eurostat work covered not only CPIs but purchasing power parities, dealing with spatial rather than temporal price differentials. The work was fascinating, drawing together the varied ideas of price statisticians from member states. All eventually went to plan, and over 10 years we had 13 legal regulations, covering most aspects of the HICP. After I retired in 2002, I started my own consultancy and spent nearly 20 years advising many countries around the world – Africa, former soviet republics, Middle and Far East. My clients were generally international organisations such as IMF, World Bank, and COMESA.

I have served on a number of international committees, notably 23 years on the UN committee dealing with the annual allowances for staff in different places of work. I was a founder member of the Ottawa Group of price statisticians which meets regularly worldwide.