Index of household consumption of goods, August 2003

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

While the seasonally adjusted consumption of food, beverages and tobacco decreased by 0.3 per cent from July to August, consumption of the other components increased. Consumption of electricity and heating fuels increased by 1.9, while purchases of vehicles and petrol and consumption of other goods showed a more moderate growth, 0.3 and 0.5 per cent respectively.

Unadjusted the consumption of food, beverages and tobacco was 2.4 per cent lower in August this year than in August last year. Purchases of vehicles and petrol decreased by 2.8 per cent while the consumption of electricity and heating fuels increased by 3.0 per cent. The tendency of strong growth in the consumption of other goods continued, as this group grew by 9.5 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 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.