The Cost of Living Pressure Index (CLPI) helps explain how changes in prices and living costs are affecting people’s daily lives. Rather than focusing only on numbers, CLPI looks at whether households can still afford basic needs and how they cope when costs rise.
CLPI is not an inflation rate and not an official government index. It is an independent, research-based tool developed by the Somali Researchers Association (SRA) to reflect lived economic realities.
CLPI focuses on everyday pressures that families face including the cost of food, transport, fuel, housing, water, healthcare, and education and whether household income is enough to cover these needs throughout the month. It also considers common coping behaviors, such as reducing consumption or borrowing to manage expenses.
This index matters because prices alone do not always tell the full story. Even when markets appear stable, many households may feel increasing financial strain. CLPI helps highlight early signs of stress and changes in affordability over time, providing useful context for public discussion, research, and development planning.
Through CLPI, SRA shares clear and easy-to-understand signals about cost-of-living pressure, focusing on trends and direction rather than technical figures. The aim is to support better understanding of economic conditions while complementing not replacing official economic data.