Index of household consumption of goods, December 2003

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption was 7.4 per cent higher in December 2003 than in December 2002.

Seasonally adjusted figures show that consumption of food, beverages and tobacco and consumption of other goods increased by 1.2 and 0.9 per cent respectively. The consumption of electricity and heating fuels still shows a weak growth rate of -3.3 per cent from November to December. This is partly due to warm weather in December. Purchases of vehicles and petrol decreased by 1.3 per cent in this period.

Unadjusted figures show that the consumption of food, beverages and tobacco was 4.7 per cent higher in December 2003 than in December 2002. In the same period, purchases of vehicles and petrol rose by 3.3 per cent. Consumption of electricity and heating fuels fell by no less than 13.5 per cent. Consumption of other goods grew by 12.5 per cent in December 2003 compared to December 2002.

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.