Consumer price index, 15 April 2002

The CPI stood at 109.7 (1998=100) in April 2002, in comparison to 109.1 in April 2001, and was unchanged from March to April 2002

Year-to-year change: Prices up 0.5 per cent

Due to the July 2001 reduction in value added tax, the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages have decreased by 5.8 per cent on average during the last 12 months. Especially the prices of cheese products have shown a strong decrease.

The tariffs on electricity were one of the main factors behind the price increase throughout 2001. This year, they have shown a more regular seasonal pattern and after strong declines both in March and April, the tariffs are now 9.9 per cent lower than in April last year. Even though the prices of petrol increased by 8.0 per cent from January to April 2002, the petrol prices have fallen by 5.3 per cent on a year-to-year basis. The CPI excluding energy products (CPI-AE) has increased by 1.0 per cent since April last year.

Airline fares are 3.7 per cent lower than in April 2001, mainly due to the removal of the passenger tax on flights. The CPI-AT was 2.0 per cent in April. Changes in real taxes therefore pull the consumer price growth down by 1.5 percentage points. In addition to the reduction in value-added tax and the tax on flights, lower taxes on petrol, electricity and alcohol contribute to this development. The year-to-year change in the CPI adjusted for tax changes and excluding energy products (CPI-ATE) was 2.4 per cent.

The prices of clothing and footwear have shown a seasonal increase during the last couple of months, but the prices are nevertheless 3.1 per cent lower than in April last year.

Rentals have been the main contributing factor to the CPI growth. Costs for owner-occupied housing and rentals for housing have increased by 4.9 and 4.4 per cent respectively. Goods and services for the maintenance of dwellings have shown a price increase as well as insurance expenditures.

Changes in the year-to-year growth: Strong decrease

The year-to-year growth fell from 1.0 per cent in March to 0.5 per cent in April. The price developments of tariffs on electricity and airline fares explain to a large extent this decline.

In April this year, the tariffs showed a more normal pattern and fell by 6.9 per cent. In comparison, the tariffs increased by 2.6 per cent in April last year. Airline fares went down by 11.6 per cent in April, against a 10.8 per cent rise in April last year, which was due to a tax increase on flights.

CPI-AT declined from 2.4 per cent in March to 2.0 per cent in April while CPI-ATE went down from 2.6 per cent to 2.4 per cent.

The consumer prices unchanged from March to April

The prices of petrol continued to increase in April by 5.2 per cent. The price increase is partly due to the development in oil prices.

The prices of clothing and footwear increased by 1.2 per cent, but are still below the price level in December. The prices of footwear increased by 2.6 per cent, while the prices of clothing rose only slightly by 0.9 per cent.

The tariffs on electricity fell by 6.9 per cent in April. The rentals for housing and the costs for owner-occupied housing increased both by 0.3 per cent.

As mentioned above, airline fares declined by 11.6 per cent mainly as a result of the removal of the passenger tax on flights as of 1 April.

Taken together, the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 0.1 per cent from March to April. The prices of non-alcoholic beverages increased by 0.5 per cent, while food prices remained unchanged.