Harmonized index of consumer prices, 15 April 2003

HICP for Norway fell by 0.7 per cent from March to April mainly due to the price development on energy products. The year-to-year change was 2.5 per cent in April, down from 3.2 per cent in March. See http://www.ssb.no/english/kpi_en/ for more details.

Year-to-year change in the EEA

From March 2002 to March 2003 the consumer prices in the EEA went up 2.3 per cent. Ireland had the highest growth of 4.9 per cent. The lowest consumer price growth was registered in Germany with 1.2 per cent, followed by Great Britain with an increase of 1.6 per cent.

During the last 12 months household payments for education and prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco had the largest growth rates in the EEA of 5.0 and 4.6 per cent respectively. The prices within the transport sector rose on average by 4.1 per cent from March last year to March this year, and the prices increased in all the EEA countries. The prices of fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment increased the most. The prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels as a total went up by 3.3 per cent in the EEA. Norway had the largest price increase of 15.5 per cent, followed by Sweden with a rise of 9.8 per cent. The increase was among other things due to the development on the tariffs of electricity. There were also registered strong increases in the prices of liquid fuels in most of the EEA countries.

The prices of communications declined slightly during the last 12 months. Greece had the largest decrease among the countries in the EEA with a price reduction of 6.0 per cent.

In advance, Eurostat estimated the year-to-year change in March in the Euro-zone to 2.4 per cent, which turned out to be the actual price growth. Expected growth in the consumer prices in the Euro-zone in April is 2.1 per cent. The HICP for the European Union increased by 2.3 per cent in March.