Harmonized index of consumer prices, May 2019

National level only.

Monthly.

Data on micro level, information about sample units, population, and catalogues are stored in SAS and Oracle databases.

The statistics is primarily designed for international comparisons of price development.

In 1991 the Treaty on European Union (the "Maastricht Treaty") laid down various convergence criteria that increased the demands for comparable price indices. An international cooperation started in 1993 where the objectives were to obtain comparable measures of price development. HICP was first published in 1997. HICPs are produced in all Member States in addition to Iceland and Norway.

The Norwegian HICP is founded on the Norwegian CPI for which the process of editing and the methods of calculations were modernized and improved in 1999, and the classification of consumption was changed to Classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP). In 2005 the sub-index for food and non-alcoholic beverages was improved, which resulted in a sub-index exclusively based on the use of electronic scanner data. From 2011 National Account data are the main weigh source and replaced the Household Budget Survey which had been used since 1960. From 2016 the classification of consumption was extended and are now named ECOICOP (European Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose). In addition the classification of indices grouped by delivery sector is revised.

From 2011 National Account data are the main weigh source and replaced the Household Budget Survey which had been used since 1997.

The HICP has to a large extent the same users as the CPI, which are the public sector (ministries, the Bank of Norway) and the financial sector. Within Statistics Norway the HICP is used in the context of analysis and research. The Central European Bank is also an important user. The Eurozone index is used as a main indicator for monetary policy management for the Euro-zone. Statistics Norway report monthly the Norwegian HICP to Eurostat and the Norwegian publication of the HICP is considered preliminary until the Eurostat publication.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar. For more information, go to: equality priciples

The traditional CPI is the foundation of the HICP.

Some data are collected from the Construction Cost Index for Residential Buildings, the price indices for business activities (car rental, other transport services and legal activities) and from the Wage Statistics. 

The Statistics Act of June 21, 2019 number 32

Harmonized Indices of Consumer Prices are regulated through a number of acts: Legislation related to HKPI

The population is defined as all goods and services offered to households in Norway. Prices and expenditure shares of a sample of products and services are being measured. Expenditure shares (weights) are based on data obtained from the National accounts, while prices are collected each month from a representative sample of retail and service outlets. This sample is selected from all outlets in Statistics Norway's Business Register defined as the industries 45, 47, 55, 56, 77, 95 and 96 (SIC07 -The Standard Industrial Classification). In addition, prices are collected with unequal frequency from different outlets or parties (including households) mainly on services within the industries 35, 49, 50, 51, 53, 60, 61, 65, 66, 69, 77, 79, 85, 86, 88, 90, 91 and 93. Household samples are selected from the "Central Population Register".

The sample of goods and services is nearly fully harmonized with the CPI sample. The cost for owner-occupied housing that consists of about 14 per cent of the CPI is not included in the HICP. In addition Games of chance and Live insurance is not included. Due restribution of the weights of these omissioned areas, the absolute weights at detailed level differs between the CPI and the HICP.   

The HICP (and CPI) is based on the following sources: Questionnaires, electronic data from firms and dwellings, turnover information from Statistics Norway's Business Register, commodity trade statistics, and budget shares from the household budget survey.

A sample of about 650 goods and services is selected. In addition, scanner data is used as the only data source for for food and beverages together with non-food goods from supermarkets, pharmaceutical goods, fuel and within specific consumption groups in clothing and equipment for sport and open-air recreation.

Representative goods and services in the sample are selected based on information from the annual household budget survey and branch information. The sample of goods and services is basically kept constant, but is regularly updated when new important products enter the market while outdated products are removed. Prices are collected from a sample of outlets, households and municipalities. The outlets comprise a panel sample where one sixth of the outlets are replaced each year. The sample amounts to about 2 000 firms. The sample of households for the survey of rents amounts to 2 500 tenants. The outlets/firms are selected from Statistics Norway's Business Register in proportion to the firms turnover i.e. large firms have a bigger probability of being chosen. The selection is made after stratifying the population by industry and region. The probability to be selected is proportional to the size of the turnover. The sample does not overlap the sample of the Index of Retail Sales

The sampling plan for the food and non-alcoholic beverages index is based on the population in the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises (CRE) defined as the industries in 47.11 and 47.12. The draft population consists of companies belonging to the major supermarket chains and their associated kiosk chains, provided that they can deliver scanner data. Parts of the sample are replaced each year to ensure a representative sample. 

Another sampling methodology is used for sub-surveys directed towards municipalities (KOSTRA).

The main part of the prices are collected by means of electronic questionnaires, which are available to the outlets around the 10th of each month, and returned on the first working day after the 15th. Statistics Norway also receives electronic scanner data from grocery firms, retail pharmacies, sport- and clothing dealer's and petrol stations monthly. Car prices and price information on alcoholic beverages are received electronically. Tariffs on electricity are collected from the Internet. Rentals for tenants are collected by means of web questionnaires and CATI - Computer Assisted Telephone Interview - directly from households.

An outlet uses an average 90 minutes to fill out the questionnaires throughout the year, which means that the sample of outlets uses in total about 3 300 hours or less than 520 days of work each year.

Individual firms fill out the questionnaires. Firms who fail to comply receive a "notice of fine". To avoid paying the fine, firms must submit completed forms to Statistics Norway within 6 to 7 days.

After checking the questionnaires, the prices are thereafter put through tests, which identifies duplicates and observations with large price changes from the previous month. The price material are then sorted by item and region and further edited. Finally, prices are controlled at item level and item group level. Generally firms are not contacted during the editing process.

Indices at micro level are calculated for each commodity in each region (the country is divided into 8 different regions) by an unweighted geometric mean. Each regional index is then weighted into a national index for each commodity based on turnover shares. Aggregation to higher levels is done by the Laspeyre formula where the weights are based on the National Accounts. Weights are updated annually and price updated to the reference period. The price reference period is December and short-term indices are chained to long-term indices where the index reference period is 2015, i.e. 2015 = 100.

Not relevant

Data collected from firms and households are subject to secrecy and are to be kept or destroyed in a secure manner. Any use of the data must be in accordance with the rules set out by the Data Inspectorate.

Statistics Norway release monthly figures for Norway consisting of indices, monthly rate of change and 12-month rate. In addition weights and an annual growth rate is released. Eurostat publish all-item indices and several measures for rates of change for all the European countries countries each month. Eurostat also produces separate indices for EU, EEA and the Euro-zone. The all-item indices for each country go back to January 1996.