Index of household consumption of goods, October 2003

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption was 5.1 per cent higher in October 2003 than in October 2002.

Seasonally adjusted figures show that consumption of electricity and heating fuels rose by 3.9 per cent between September and October. Purchases of vehicles and petrol saw a more modest increase of 1.8 per cent. While consumption of food, beverages and tobacco continued its growth on the previous month, there was no growth in the consumption of other goods from September to October. Note that the seasonally adjusted indices have been revised.

Unadjusted figures show that the consumption of food, beverages and tobacco was 2.5 per cent higher in September 2003 than in September 2002. In the same period, purchases of vehicles and petrol rose by 2.0 per cent while the consumption of electricity and heating fuels fell by 5.2 per cent. Consumption of other goods grew by more than 7 per cent for the sixth consecutive month.

Method differs from the index of retail sale

The index of commodity consumption describes the development in household consumption of goods, while the index of retail sales measures the development in retail sales. As opposed to the index of retail sales, the index of commodity consumption includes goods that are not sold in retail. It is based on sales of goods from additional industries and calculated with a weighting for the portion of sales to households. This may 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 to information on purchases of cars, sales of petrol and oil to petrol stations and the consumption of electricity unadjusted for changes in temperature.

The index of commodity consumption uses the same definitions and methods of compilation as the quarterly national accounts, and thus serves as an indicator of household consumption of goods in the quarterly national accounts. The individual components of the index are seasonally adjusted.

Timeliness is important in the release of statistics, and the index of commodity consumption may therefore have to rely on preliminary estimates in some cases. Such estimates are replaced in the subsequent release. This applies, inter alia, to figures on electricity consumption, where short-term statistics from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) are used. Later on these short-term statistics are replaced by electricity statistics from Statistics Norway. This implies that the index of commodity consumption normally will be revised in the subsequent publishing.