Index of household consumption of goods, January 2003

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption was 3.1 per cent higher in January 2003 than in January 2002.

Statistics Norway is now for the first time publishing sub indices from the index of commodity consumption. The sub indices are food, beverages and tobacco, electricity and heating fuels, purchase of vehicles and petrol and other goods.

Seasonally adjusted the consumption of electricity and heating fuels and the purchase of vehicles and petrol decreased by 2.5 per cent from December to January. The consumption of food, beverages and tobacco increased by 1.7 per cent, while the consumption of other goods increased by 1.1 percent in the same period.

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. The index of commodity consumption will from now on be published approximately two weeks prior to the normal date (according to the previous cycle). Since the index is calculated at an earlier point in time, Statistics Norway does not have access to all the information normally used. In these cases, preliminary estimates will be used, and 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 has been utilised. This implies that the index of commodity consumption normally will be revised in the subsequent publishing each month.

Method differs from the index of retail sale

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 in more industries and calculated with a weighting consistent with the share of the sales actually allocated to the households. This can 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 seasonally adjusted individually.