Index of household consumption of goods, March 2005

Seasonally adjusted figures show a 5.1 per cent decrease in purchases of vehicles and petrol from February to March this year. In the same period the consumption of electricity and heating fuels increased by 0.1 per cent. The consumption of food, beverages and tobacco increased by 0.2 per cent, while the consumption of other goods was 6.0 per cent lower in March than in February.

Seasonal adjustment of the effect of purchases in connection with Easter is rather complex. The seasonally adjusted volume indexes of commodity consumption for March and April are therefore more uncertain than for other months of the year.

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption decreased by 2.0 per cent from March 2004 to March 2005. Purchases of vehicles and petrol decreased by 9.7 per cent, while the consumption of electricity and heating fuels increased by 5.0 per cent. The consumption of food, beverages and tobacco increased by 0.2 per cent, while the consumption of other goods was 1.9 per cent lower in March this year compared to March last year.

Method differs from the index of retail sale

The index of commodity consumption describes the development in household consumption of goods, while the index of retail sales measures the development in retail sales. As opposed to the index of retail sales, the index of commodity consumption includes goods that are not sold in retail trade. Thus, the calculation of the index of commodity consumption is based on information from the index of retail sales in addition to information on purchases of cars, sales of petrol and oil to petrol stations and the consumption of electricity unadjusted for changes in temperature. This may result in deviations in the development of the two indices.

The index of commodity consumption uses the same definitions and methods of compilation as the quarterly national accounts, and thus serves as an indicator of household consumption of goods in the quarterly national accounts.

Timeliness is important in the release of statistics, and the index of commodity consumption may therefore have to rely on preliminary estimates in some cases. Such estimates are replaced in the subsequent release. This applies, inter alia, to figures on electricity consumption, where short-term statistics from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) are used. Later on these short-term statistics are replaced by electricity statistics from Statistics Norway. This implies that the index of commodity consumption normally will be revised in the subsequent publishing.