Index of household consumption of goods, June 2003

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption was 3.9 per cent higher in June 2003 than in June 2002. Compared with the first half of 2002, the unadjusted index was on average 2.5 per cent higher in the first half of 2003.

While the seasonally adjusted consumption of food, beverages and tobacco showed only small changes from May to June, consumption of electricity and heating fuels grew by 2.3 per cent. In the same period purchases of vehicles and petrol and consumption of other goods increased by just above 1 per cent.

The unadjusted consumption of food, beverages and tobacco decreased by 1,1 per cent from June last year to June this year, while purchases of vehicles and petrol increased by 1,2 per cent and consumption of electricity and heating fuels increased by 2.3 per cent. The strong growth in consumption of other goods continued by more than 8 per cent

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 based on sales of additional industries and calculated with a weighting consistent with the portion 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.