Actions taken by the Government to limit the corona virus outbreak have implications for the CPI also in July. Even though most services are available again and is included as normal in the CPI, some services regarding travel amongst other are still being treated separately. Services with close to zero consumption in June accounts for about 1.5 per cent of total CPI measured in terms of the CPI weights, and prices on these services are mainly estimated based on seasonal factors.
Measures taken by the Government to limit the corona outbreak have implications for the CPI also for July. As the national and regional measures vary, only consumption areas affected nationally are specially treated. Services with clear seasonal variation in prices such as international flights and package holidays had their price development estimated based on seasonal factors. For more information, see Corona consequences for CPI.
As one of the measures related to the corona situation, the reduced value added tax (VAT) rate was decreased from 12 per cent to 6 per cent from April 1, 2020. Reduced VAT rates apply to personal transports, hotel accommodations as well as access to cinema, sporting events and amusement parks. In addition, air passenger tax is temporarily exempt. In CPI-AT and CPI-ATE, this is treated so that the services related to non-availability due to the corona situation are not affected by the changed VAT rate nor flight passenger tax, while for the services that consumption has been taken place a reduced VAT and air passenger tax has been measured.
Statistics Norway publishes each month a seasonally adjusted all-item CPI and all-item CPI-ATE. The seasonal adjustment during the corona crisis is made in a way that the figures from the period which is affected by the crisis are not included in the data for calculating the seasonal pattern. Technically, in the seasonal adjustment routine, this is done by specifying the period as the extreme value. Statistics Norway's seasonal adjustment of all-item CPI and all-item CPI-ATE is in line with recommendations from Eurostat.