Index of household consumption of goods, September 2003

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption was 7.3 per cent higher in September 2003 than in September 2002. The revision of the index of retail sales from May 2003 has entailed a revision of the consumption group "other goods" in the same period.

Although all consumption groups contribute to the seasonally adjusted increase from August to September, the growth rates are far from uniform. While consumption of food, beverages and tobacco increased by 0.6 per cent, the consumption of electricity and heating fuels increased by 6.3 per cent. Purchases of vehicles and petrol and consumption of other goods showed rather strong increases, by 1.0 and 1.5 per cent respectively.

Unadjusted the consumption of food, beverages and tobacco was 4.1 per cent higher in September this year than in September last year. In the same period purchases of vehicles and petrol increased by 2.0 per cent while the consumption of electricity and heating fuels increased by 3.9 per cent. Consumption of other goods continues to rise, this month by 12.0 per cent.

Method differs from the index of retail sale

The index of commodity consumption aims at describing the development in the households' consumption of goods, while the index of retail sales is an index measuring the development in retail sales. As opposed to the index of retail sales, the index of commodity consumption also includes goods not sold in retail trade. It is based on sales of goods from additional industries and calculated with a weighting consistent with the portion of the sales actually allocated to the households. This may result in deviations in the development of the two indices. The calculation of the index of commodity consumption is based on information from the index of retail sales. In addition, the index of commodity consumption uses information about purchases of cars, sales of petrol and oil to petrol stations and consumption of electricity unadjusted for changes in temperature.

The index of commodity consumption uses the same definitions and nearly the same methods of compilation as the Quarterly National Accounts. The index of commodity consumption is thus an indicator of household consumption of goods in the Quarterly National Accounts. The components of the index of commodity consumption are individually seasonally adjusted. Since Statistics Norway emphasises timeliness, the index of commodity consumption in some cases has to rely on preliminary estimates, which are subsequently replaced in the next publishing. This applies among others to consumption of electricity, where the Norwegian water resources and energy directorate's short-term statistics have been utilised. This implies that the index of commodity consumption normally will be revised in the subsequent publishing each month.