Statistics Finland revised the Consumer Price Index

Statistics Finland's Consumer Price Index has been revised. The weight structure of the index has been changed and the commodity basket updated. The base year of the new Consumer Price Index is 2005.

In the revision around 22 per cent of the commodity basket was changed. New commodities in the Consumer Price Index include pre-baked bread and pastries, flavoured quark, woolly hat, MP3 player and of restaurant food pasta, vegetarian dish, salad, dessert and special coffee. For example, semolina, beef blade, food processor, video recorder, video cassette and roll film were removed from the index. The index monitors the price development of a total of 497 commodities. Around 55,000 prices on commodities from approximately 3,500 outlets are collected monthly for the Consumer Price Index.

The weight structure of the Consumer Price Index 2005=100 is based on national accounts data concerning the year 2004, which have been updated to correspond to the value of private consumption in 2005. In 2005 the value of private consumption was EUR 70.4 billion. In the previous base year 2000 the corresponding consumption was EUR 56.5 billion.

Weight structure comparison of Consumer Price Indices 2005=100 and 2000=100

The handling of owner-occupied housing expenditure in the Consumer Price Index was revised. In the previous index owner-occupied housing was measured with a method based on operating costs, whereas a method based on net purchases of dwellings is used in the new Consumer Price Index. Due to methodological changes, the weight of housing grew in the index from 19.5 to 21.3 per cent. The weight of housing prices in the Consumer Price Index increased, but the weight of interest decreased. The change is based on a project in progress within the EU's statistical system, aiming to include owner-occupied housing as part of the EU's Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices.

The base year of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices changed

Statistics Finland has also revised the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices calculated for Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. The base year of the new Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices is 2005.

The coverage and commodity basket of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices are slightly different than those of the national Consumer Price Index. The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices covers nearly 90 per cent of the commodity basket of the national Consumer Price Index. Compared with the national index, the components missing from the Harmonised Index are such as capital costs of owner-occupied housing, games of chance and interest on consumer credit.

National Consumer Price Index items and their weights excluded from the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices 2005 = 100

Commodity/group	Weight in CPI, %
Owner-occupied housing	8.7
Vehicle tax	0.5
Games of chance	2.0
Interest on consumer credit	1.2
Asset transfer tax on redemption of documents	0.4
Excluded from HICP, total	12.7

Eurostat will publish new Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices 2005=100 in the EU and EMU areas for January 2006 on Tuesday, 28 February 2006.

Source: Consumer Price Index 2006, January. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Ms Mari Ylä-Jarkko +358 9 1734 3310, Mr Timo Koskimäki +358 9 1734 3479,
Mr Juhani Pekkarinen +358 9 1734 3476

Director in charge: Mr Kari Molnar

Links: Statistical release related to the press release