Index of household consumption of goods, May 2003

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption was 4.0 per cent higher in May 2003 than in May 2002.

Seasonally adjusted the consumption of electricity and heating fuels increased by 13.6 per cent from April to May. Unadjusted the growth was 8.6 per cent. One reason for the strong growth can be the cold weather in May. According to the Norwegian water resources and energy directorate's short-term statistics, the gross domestic consumption exclusive consumption in energy intensive manufacturing increased by 9.3 per cent in May 2003 from the corresponding month last year. Their temperature adjusted calculations show a decrease by 1.1 per cent in the same period.

Consumption of food, beverages and tobacco and purchase of vehicles and petrol showed only small changes from May last year to May this year, while consumption of other goods increased by more than 8 per cent in the same period.

Seasonally adjusted the consumption of other goods stayed unchanged from April to May. Purchase of vehicles and petrol showed a seasonally adjusted growth of 2.1 per cent, while consumption of food, beverages and tobacco decreased by 2.1 per cent seasonally adjusted.

Method differs from the index of retail sale

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. As opposed to the index of retail sales, the index of commodity consumption also includes goods not sold in retail trade. It is also based on sales of additional industries and finally it is 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 individually seasonally adjusted. Since Statistics Norway emphasises timeliness, the index of commodity consumption in some cases has to rely on preliminary estimates, which are 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 have been utilised. This implies that the index of commodity consumption normally will be revised in the subsequent publishing each month.