Harmonized index of consumer prices, 15 October 2003

HICP for Norway fell by 0.2 per cent from September to October mainly due to the price development of electricity and petrol prices. The year-to-year change was 1.6 per cent in October, down from 1.9 per cent in September. See http://www.ssb.no/english/kpi_en/ for more details.

The numbers for EEA, Euro-zone and the EU are provisional, from June 2002 to September 2003 has occurred in the consumer price index in the Netherlands because of an error.

Year-to-year change in the EEA

From September 2002 to September this year, the consumer prices in the EEA went up 1.9 per cent. Ireland had the highest price growth in September by 3.8 per cent. Followed by Portugal with price growth of 3.2 per cent. The lowest consumer price growth in September was registered in Germany with 1.1 per cent.

From September last year to September this year household payments for education showed the largest growth rate in the EEA with a price increase of 4.8 per cent. Except for Sweden, an increase was registered in all the countries in the EEA, and Denmark had the highest price growth of 16.4 per cent. The prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco as a total went up 4.5 per cent in the EEA.

During the last 12 months the prices of recreation and culture and communications have declined slightly by 0.3 and 0.2 per cent respectively. By that it was contributing to moderate the growth in the consumer price index.

In advance, Eurostat estimated the year-to-year change in September in the Euro-zone to 2.1 per cent, which turned out to be the actual price growth. Expected growth in the consumer prices in the Euro-zone in October is 2.1 per cent. The HICP for the European Union increased by 1.9 per cent in September.